Presenting “Valencia Pavilion. The Future is Design”, Valencia’s exhibition as guest city of Madrid Design Festival 2021
31 Jan 2021 /

Presenting “Valencia Pavilion. The Future is Design”, Valencia’s exhibition as guest city of Madrid Design Festival 2021

World Design Capital Valencia 2022 will attend the forthcoming Madrid Design Festival with an exhibition that enhances the value of Valencian design as a factor of change in contemporary industry and craftsmanship, based on success stories of companies and professionals who have made design a way of understanding their project culture. Based on five categories that will mark the future of the economy, these success stories are just the tip of the iceberg of an industry and craftsmanship that have been using design to face social changes for many years. An exhibition organized in collaboration with IVACE Internacional and Valencia’s Town Hall.

Designed by MUT Design and curated by Estudio Savage, the exhibition “Valencia Pavilion. The Future is Design” presents five differentiated areas looking at the circular economy, contemporary industry and craftsmanship, design and art, technology, and the transformative economy, to emphasise the success stories that are changing the way we do things. Consolidated companies – many of which have won National Innovation or Design Awards – together with established professionals and new talents, constitute the selection of some 50 projects that provide a good sample of the excellence of Valencian design, the reason for which Valencia will be World Design Capital in the year 2022.

From 9 February and until 14 March, the Chapel Hall of the Fernán Gómez Cultural Centre (Centro Cultural de la Villa) will be the setting for a large installation that presents organic shapes and materials together with totally digital contents. An exhibition born in a time of pandemic which combines its attendance-based version with an accessible digital version. A space that combines audiovisual, sound and digital material to talk about the Valencian projects, professional designers and companies that are revolutionising the field of play with their transgressive and innovative outlook.

Benchmarking product design firms with Valencian DNA such as Actiu, Andreu World, Capdell, Expormim, GAN Rugs, Lladró, LZF Lamps, Point, Porcelanosa, Punt Mobles, Equipo DRT, Jenalogía, Casas inHAUS and Vondom; creative figures of considerable national and international renown such as estudio Masquespacio, Jaime Hayón, Inma Bermúdez, Juan Vidal, Anna Talens, Pepe Gimeno, Néctar Estudio, Jorge Herrera, Alegre Design and Héctor Serrano or great creators such as the urban artist ESCIF, the visual artist Felipe Pantone, the illustrator África Pitarch, Rocío Gallardo and Jorge Ros (who are responsible for the jewellery firm Simuero), the ceramists Ana Illueca and Domanises, as well as the glass blower Sara Sorribes, form part of the show.

The exhibition design

The search among the roots of Valencian imagery has led MUT Design to form a series of modular pavilions with curved and attractive shapes, a habitual seal of identity in their projects. The itinerary, comprising modular pavilions with a cylindrical shape and unique personality, will gradually transform so that the space is led by the design itself. “With this set of modular elements, we have set out to ensure that each sample has its own character, differentiated from the previous exhibit,” affirms Alberto Sánchez, founder and creative director of the Valencian studio.

A large installation that presents organic shapes and materials together with totally digital contents.

Natural wood is a constant factor throughout the exhibition, both in the structure of the different pavilions and in their cladding. Small pieces act as skin and scales, generating a framework of organic matter that contrasts with the audiovisual display of the projects selected for the show.

In short, the exhibition comprises a set of different wooden pavilions, reaching a height of four metres, and which have been built completely by hand by the falla artist Manolo García.

“Valencia Pavilion. The Future is Design” is the first port of call for a travelling show that will be present at the main fairs across the world and which is not static, but will always be open to the inclusion of many other projects that, through design, promote a change in the way we think, produce, communicate and act from the point of view of the five topics included in the show.