WORLD DESIGN CAPITAL VALENCIA 2022 UNVEILS ITS OFFICIAL PROGRAMME

The organization of World Design Capital Valencia 2022 today presented its official programme to verify that, more than an event, it constitutes a milestone in the history of the city and in the international projection of both the entire Valencia Region and the Brand “Spain”, by leading the promotion of design as a tool for the transversal transformation of society, and a lever for growth. And it is that, only in the Valencia Region,  design contributes with more than 4,000 million euros to its annual GDP.

The President of the Generalitat Valenciana, Mr. Ximo Puig; the Mayor of Valencia, Mr. Joan Ribó; the President of the Valencian Parliament, Mr. Enric Morera; the Secretary General of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, Mrs. Teresa Riesgo; the President of the Valencia Provincial Council, Mr Toni Gaspar; and the Minister for Sustainable Economy, Productive Sectors, Trade and Employment of the Generalitat Valenciana, Mr Rafael Climent, have accompanied the team of World Design Capital Valencia 2022 and the members of the World Design Organization in the official presentation of the event’s program for 2022 , a momentous occasion for a territory whose design is the backbone of the history of its industry and both an artistic and cultural heritage. The event was held at the Palau de Les Arts Reina Sofía with 1,200 attendees representing institutions and companies from the Valencian design ecosystem.

As part of the communication program of World Design Capital Valencia 2022, a hundred registered media – including 25 international media and more than 50 other leading publications in the industry – have attended this morning the press conference that has taken place in the Mar Rojo Auditorium of the Valencia Oceanogràfic, in the presence of Xavi Calvo, Director of World Design Capital Valencia 2022, Bertrand Derome, General Director of the World Design Organization, and Corinna Heilmann, Program Director of World Design Capital Valencia 2022.

The more than 100 activities, 150 top-level speakers, 70 collaboration agreements, 25 venues and nearly 100 entities involved in the intense program of the coming months, are the tangible materialization of an event conceived to transcend well beyond 2022 and set the foundations of a legacy for the city and its future generations, with design as a means of transformation and a common thread between values ​​such as health, education, innovation, heritage, equality, inclusion, diversity and sustainability as the essence of a new Valencia immersed in an unprecedented change.

The 2022 program aims to definitely put Valencia in the spotlight as the world capital of design, by multiplying and taking to the next level the dozens of professional projects, actions, city interventions, exhibitions, conferences, professional meetings, publications and own productions that have been heating up the engines of the capital city throughout 2021, causing a real positive impact on Valencia and its social, economic and creative fabric.

AGENDA OF ACTIVITIES, AN INTENSE AND CROSS-CUTTING PROGRAM DESIGNED FOR ALL PUBLICS AND DISTRICT BY DISTRICT.

The program of València World Capital of Design for 2022 includes a hundred events – including interventions, congresses and professional meetings, publications and own productions and exhibitions – that will cover all disciplines of design around six strategic axes: health and well-being, didactics of design, economy and innovation, heritage and identity, environmental sustainability and equity, inclusion and diversity.

SIGNATURE EVENTS, LARGE INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS PROMOTED WITH THE WDO WORLD DESIGN ORGANIZATION

The seven “Signature Events” co-organised with the World Design Organization expect to attract around 130,000 visitors in 2022 and more than 100 top-level international speakers. They will be held on the second half of the year, as the culmination of the capital, and in order to instill the importance and recognition of design as a key tool for improving the economic, social, cultural and environmental development of territories.

At the beginning of summer (June 18-25) in La Rambleta and La Marina de València, World Design Experience – EXPERIENCE VALENCIA 2022 will surprise the city with a mix between digital and interactive design, graphic design, motion graphics, music, creativity, product design and art. This festival of leading figures in design will be one of the main meeting points worldwide around the industry and will include workshops, presentations and master classes seeking the best user experience. With a close format and open to professionals from all over the world, this event will involve renowned professionals such as Caterina Bianchini, Brian Collins, Alex Trochut, Alex Hunting, Liza Enebeis, Rebeka Arce, Yarza Twins, Thomas Kurppa or David Navarro. They will also be days of musical concerts with prestigious artists in different areas of the city. Experience Valencia 2022 will therefore be an opportunity to involve a wide audience that wants to know the latest trends in design and beyond.

On September 23, Bombas Gens Centre d’Art will host the World Design Exchange, a meeting between the managers and organizers of some of the world’s Design Weeks —from Stockholm to Berlin and from Lima to Chengdu— and other design events. A forum with design representatives from the 5 continents to discuss design from a global, creative and social perspective in which case studies, acquired knowledge and challenges will be shared through workshop sessions and networking. In this hybrid format meeting, cities that want to join this movement will be inspired, thus generating a hub to forge alliances, in addition to answering questions such as: what are the main challenges in the current context? and what legacy will remain through the promotion of design events and their community?

The World Design Street Festival, from September 19 to 25, will be the celebration of World Design Capital Valencia 2022 in the streets, and the off for Feria Hábitat València. Its calendar of activities will take place throughout the city and in the old riverbed, and will be focused on the creativity and promotion of its professionals by gathering Valencians and visitors alike through exhibitions, conferences, workshops, design routes, or initiatives that will connect design with areas such as gastronomy. In line with the vocation of World Design Capital Valencia 2022 to democratize design and educate around it a and thus to generate a change, the Street Festival will allow people to come across design elements by chance in everyday settings to provoke spontaneous reflection on the true meaning of design. The event will offer an organic and fluid route throughout the city in an analogy of the path that leads us to move people from one idea to another.

On November 3 and 4, 2022, the Valencia Congress Palace will be venue for the World Design Policy Conference, which will feature the involvement of leading figures such as Ezio Manzini, Brandon Gien, Alok Nandi, Leyla Acoroglu, René Spitz, Anna Whicher, Päivi Tahkokallio, Gisele Raulik Murphy or Brigitte Borja de Mozota. Its aim will be to provide a global platform for the exchange of ideas and best practices from different countries, regions and cities that are activating, developing and maintaining an effective design policy. These policies are critical to shaping the prosperity and well-being of a city and its inhabitants. The result of this meeting and its conclusions seek to lay the foundations to exercise public policies in which design plays a relevant role, understood from the perspective of rigor and good judgment in its application. The conference will be represented by the European Commission and the New European Bauhaus and will highlight the social relevance of design to leading companies, organizations and institutions in the integration of design in corporate and growth strategies.

The World Design Convocation Ceremony will take place on November 3. An event to make a balance, to reveal the first findings of the impact study, reflect on the legacy of World Design Capital Valencia 2022 and officially deliver the title of the World Design Capital to the city that will be the World Capital of Design in 2024 -San Diego and Tijuana-. About 300 guests will gather at this ceremony, which will be attended by the international council of the WDO and the personalities that make up the International Advisory Committee of World Design Capital Valencia 2022.

In Plaza del Ayuntamiento, also in the penultimate month of the year, the World Design Cities Meeting will take place. A world forum of the World Design Capitals where, from the participation and gaze of its institutional representatives, it will provide the opportunity to generate synergies and meetings between its leaders and main promoters. Directed by the World Design Organization, it will promote the exchange of ideas between the promoters of the policies and initiatives that the councils propose to transform and improve life in cities.

The Signature Events cycle will put the finishing touch on the commemoration of the capital with the presentation of the World Design Spotlight project, designed to promote local talent —València is the cradle of many National Design Awards— and directed by Marisa Gallén. This activity, in fact, will expand throughout the year and will conclude at the end of 2022 by having paid tribute to the design community through 52 professionals who will be its protagonists week by week. World Design Spotlight will materialize in a website with global diffusion through the ecosystem generated as a living catalog of designers, expandable during the following months with more designers. The project will culminate in a celebration with its protagonists and a farewell to the year of the capital, leaving as a legacy the history of Valencian design, a place to hire professionals and an example of the influence and visibility of Valencian design in the world.

VALÈNCIA WORLD CAPITAL OF DESIGN OWN EVENTS 2022

The city of Valencia will have its own programme every month, added to that of all the ecosystem agents that will program activities from other locations in Spain. From January to December 2022, many of the actions will be aligned with the most important events in the city, from the opening of the year in January and the celebration of Cevisama in February to the largest València Disseny Week to date, which will take place in September coinciding with the Hábitat Valencia Fair, passing through the Fallas, in which the focus will be placed in March and April connecting design and innovation ina festive way.

The Goya Awards, the celebration of the Arquia Awards, the delivery of the Michelin stars and the ADCV Awards gala will be other of the great events of the year where design will lead the way from Valencia, as well as at the premiere of two documentaries focused on two key figures of Valencian design such as Montesinos – “The other faces of the myth” – and Mariscal – “L’alegria de viure” -.

Although 2022 will have about 100 activations, World Design Capital Valencia 2022 has highlighted some of the outstanding events of the program, month by month:

On December 9 at the Palau de Les Arts Reina Sofía, Paola Antonelli will give a face-to-face conference in collaboration with the Valencian brand Andreu World. The Italian architect, chief curator of the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, is considered the voice of the design of the future.

In January, the Paradís Festival will kick off the year of World Design Capital Valencia 1022 by revolutionizing the city with express conferences and open debates on design. In a fun and entertaining way, Paradís will tell stories about creativity and innovation. In the next edition, there will be talks about trademarks and patents in a didactic and fun format, just to highlight the importance of registering trademarks and thus avoid possible upsets in the future.

February, the month of CEVISAMA, will host different meetings and exhibitions around projects such as Ceramic DNA, as well as the exhibition WHY AM I THIS WAY ?, curated by Juli Capella and organized at the Center del Carme Cultura Contemporánea (CCCC). This international meeting point will gather a selection of unique designs to give visibility to a new approach to design with very clear social and environmental values.

In March the special program “Foc: fallas, tradition and local design” will begin, which will last for several weeks, moving the entire city. The Fallas from València are the most important tourist attraction in the Valencia Region. World Design Capital Valencia 2022 will combine activities around design, art and tradition and will reflect with the first figures of the Fallas on their past, present and future.

Also in spring, the exhibition “Graphic Route. The sound design of Valencia ”, produced by the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM). This X-ray will take a look at one of the most unknown aspects for the general public about the clubbing scene generated in the city between the eighties and nineties: posters and graphic design. Its goal will be to offer a unifying story about the evolution of graphic design around what was popularly called the “cod route”, covering the Valencian tradition of comics and illustration, the arrival of musical and an aesthetic modernity in the eighties, and the digital techniques that defined the last stage of the phenomenon.

The exhibition “Designing the air“ will land in April at the González Martí Museum. This collective exhibition curated by Vicent Martínez will cover the alliance of design and the know-how of artisans from one of the Valencian trademark items: the fan. The goal is to show how that heritage can be enriched and, while respecting its richness, reposition itself and project itself into the future in connection with contemporary design and Valencian creativity.

May will be the month of “Play with Design“, organized by Milimbo at the Center del Carme Cultura Contemporània (CCCC) to bring society closer to design through games. This exhibition, conceived as an itinerary that will show and provide materials with which to interact in a constant dialogue between game and design, will challenge  visitors to take an active part on it as a creators to demonstrate that design is more present in our lives of what we believe.

Next June, at the Chirivella Soriano Foundation,  Pepe Gimeno will represent the best values ​​of a whole generation of designers, and a fundamental legacy of Spanish design. The exhibition “Pepe Gimeno. Through post-truth ”, Gimeno’s profile will stand out for having been one of the first and most important ambassadors of Spanish design in the world through rigorous creative thinking. The exhibition will cover the long and prolific professional and artistic career of almost five decades of this Valencian creator through his last plastic works, without forgetting his vocation for typographic design and typography, one of the most important hallmarks of his identity. recognized of him.

World Design Capital València 2022 and Feria Hábitat València will organize in July a monographic of designs presented at the Nude exhibition. “Nude exhibition. 20 years. 20 designers ”: twenty success stories selected by a committee of experts, which will not only include the pieces produced, but also the prototypes, sketches and models that were exhibited on the new talent platform at Feria Hábitat València. The exhibition will focus on the important role that the nude  has played as a pool of Valencian talent. With two decades of experience, it continues to be the national benchmark platform for the internationalization of emerging design in our country.

Under the theme “Modern design: social commitment and quality of life“, the XVII International DoCoMoMo Congress will be held next September in Spain within the framework of the official program of València World Capital of Design 2022 and in collaboration with the UPV and the Technical School Superior of Architecture of Valencia. From the relationship that was established between modern design and industry through the use of new materials and techniques, companies specialized in the manufacture of certain objects emerged that renewed traditional criteria. Today, many of those designs continue to be converted into cultural icons. The theme of DoCoMoMo International Conference 2022 will also allow us to reflect on how the renovation of the interior space was carried out in the broadest sense, the different contexts where it was developed and who its architects were.

September will be one of the busiest months in the capital. It will also be the moment to inaugurate the retrospective exhibition of Jaime Hayon at the Center del Carme Cultura Contemporània (2022). The designer with a creative base in Valencia has been designated the 2021 National Design Award for being “an indisputable reference of Spanish design at an international level and one of its best ambassadors in a wide variety of areas, among which lighting, furniture, habitats and design for public spaces, based on a virtuous communion between design, sculpture, crafts and interior design ”.

Tomás Alía, one of the most recognized names in interior design both in Spain and internationally, will be the curator of Pangea, an exhibition that aims to offer a vision of international design applied to crafts and contextualized as a fundamental part of the Mediterranean cultural legacy. Originating from an artisan concept that draws on 3 different cultural currents —Europe, Africa and Asia— it will embark visitors on an artistic, cultural and historical journey through a Mediterranean that, far from being divided into the more than 20 countries that share it, grows through them. The understanding of this common root will respond to the set of twenty contemporary pieces made with the different techniques and materials of traditional artisan trades.

In October there will be a great exhibition on design and health, the result of the research work of the architect and designer Ramón Úbeda. The exhibition, which will be one of the milestones at MuVIM and Palau de Colomina, will highlight the important role of design in the health sector and will emphasize its capacity as a tool for the progress and well-being of people. A timely, informative and multidisciplinary journey where science and medicine meet technology and design based in Valencia.

Las Naves, the Valencia City Council’s Innovation Center, will be the setting for the Future of Fashion meetings, which will be held during three days in October with the participation of Sustainable Fashion Employability Skills (SFES, funded by the European Union) and ENHANCE Alliance of Universities of Technology. Future of Fashion will act as a global platform for the creation, experimentation and exchange of knowledge around 6 pillars of sustainability: raw materials; design; supply chain; production; consumption and waste; emissions and biodiversity.

One of the most outstanding activities of the month of December will be the exhibition dedicated to the legacy project TiposQueImportan, directed by Miguel Maestro. La Mercería Gallery will show the documentary produced throughout 2021 and 2022 from the Valencian typographic archive research and cataloging laboratory created by Maestro with the impulse of the capital and the objectives of disseminating the graphic heritage of València and reinforcing the identity of the town.

The capital of Valencia will be the opportunity to promote other territories of the Spanish geography. The Government of Aragon, within its Strategic Plan for Design in the region, promotes Capazos 2022: Rural environment and design. A commitment to economic, social and cultural transformation in rural areas through design and dialogue that will start in Albentosa (Teruel), sub-headquarters of the World Design Capital in Aragon, in the format of meetings and a co-design program assisted by professionals who integrate people into creation processes and decision-making.

INTERNATIONAL DESIGN EPICENTER: EXPORTING VALENCIAN CREATIVITY TO THE WORLD

València was designated by the World Design Organization to be the international benchmark for design in the world during 2022, taking over from other cities such as Lille, Helsinki and Seoul. Great talents, companies and opinion leaders in the design world at all levels will attend their appointment with València in the coming months. The project has, in parallel, the advice of a committee made up of leading names in the field of design.

In order to promote design internationally from a cultural, commercial and social perspective, World Design Capital Valencia 2022 has the support of entities such as the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID), the Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade (ICEX). ), AC / E Acción Cultural Española, Visit València, the Ministry of Tourism of the Generalitat Valenciana and Turespaña.

These alliances contribute decisively to promoting Spanish design and making it known through a wide global network, as well as activating agreements  with academic design entities around the world. Thus, in recent months a program of specifiers has been built in different European countries and a program of participation in festivals and international design weeks such as those in Cuba, Berlin, Bogotá, Eindhoven, Stockholm, Quito, Shanghai, New York , Paris, Helsinki, London, Milan or Dubai, among others. Likewise, Valencia is presented as a destination for design and trends in fairs of such relevance in the tourism industry such as Fitur (Madrid), ITB (Berlin), World Travel Market (London) or IFTM (Paris).

The projection of Valencia overseas responds to the goal to make visible both the “Made in Spain” design and the Valencian culture, arts, way of life, creative industries, as well as to communicate our official program. The international dimension of World Design Capital Valencia 2022 projects a Brand of Spain associated with design, avant-garde and creativity, as a reflection of a diverse, modern, inclusive and egalitarian country.

World Design Capital Valencia 2022 also works to develop design as an international cooperation tool together with organizations such as BEDA, Cities of Design Network, and some other Cultural Institutes and International Organizations in Spain.

INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF DESIGN TO PLACE IT IN THE HEART OF COMPANIES AND GOVERNMENTS

One of the main levels of action of València World Capital of Design 2022 is the institutionalization of design based on didactics, management and awareness by public and private entities. This entails a whole task of management and awareness, so that design becomes part of the institutional decisions that are taken from the political authorities.

In this context, it is important to note that the celebration of World Design Capital Valencia 2022 was declared last May 2021 as an Event of Exceptional Public Interest in the General State Budgets, becoming a historic and exceptional event. This public-private alliance supposes an important support to the event and to all the objectives that its realization pursues, that go through the implementation of the design at the national level as a tool for business competitiveness, to improve people’s lives, public institutions and the generation of a Brand “Spain” based on creativity and industry.

Projects such as the Fundació del Disseny de la Comunitat Valenciana (www.fundaciodisseny.com), chaired by Vicent Martínez, crystallize this work of institutionalization and permanence in time. The Fundació del Disseny de la Comunitat Valenciana wants to collect, channel and promote the legacy of 2022. A space for the union of the design ecosystem of the Valencia Region to support the culture of knowledge in the creative, economic and social field of design. A place to emphasize the importance of design as a tool for creating value necessary to increase the competitiveness of companies and contribute to a better quality of life, both in cultural and socio-economic aspects.

At the same time, the accession of València to the New European Bauhaus (NEB) means that the Valencia Region sets the path and the horizon for the European design of the future but with a Valencian perspective. The NEB (www.mediterraneanbauhaus.eu) is an initiative launched by the European Commission by its president, Ursula von der Leyen, which focuses on people, their well-being and quality of life, relying on design as a cohesion tool in the face of social and environmental challenges facing humanity.

Another of the most palpable samples at this level of strategic action is the promotion of the Design Public Procurement Guide (www.contratardiseño.es), created with the aim of being a useful reference resource for all types of organizations, companies, Institutions and public administrations that need guidance when it comes to proper management and contracting of design services.

Projects such as Sustainable Urban Commons (SUC), with which Grupo Industrias Saludes and La Pinada Lab joins La Marina de València and World Design Capital Valencia 2022, unites design, industry and technology to serve the city. The main objective of SUC is to create, implement experimentally and promote the replication of urban furniture pieces for public and open spaces.

ACTIVATING A UNITED AND COHESIONED DESIGN ECOSYSTEM

World Design Capital Valencia 2022 is more than a calendar of events, more than a legacy and more than an institution. It is the materialization of a united ecosystem where organizations, professionals, companies, universities, schools, entities and institutions work together to make design known to society. A network that integrates Valencian society from its creative fabric and the different stakeholders: from citizens to the main agents of the public and private sectors.

At this level, about 70 collaboration agreements with local, national and international entities have already been signed and a total of 16 academic centers, 23 cultural  venues, 28 institutional entities and a hundred creative professionals —Creative Supporters— that form a nucleus of designers and creative studios of great diversity.

Thanks to this engagement strategy, València World Capital of Design 2022 reaffirms its status as a hub and, in parallel, reaches other cities in Spain through events such as the Madrid Design Festival and the Ibero-American Design Biennial and institutions such as the FAD, the BCD and the Museu del Disseny de Barcelona. And all this without losing its international vision, since València has already had its own space in the design weeks of places such as Cuba, Lima, Berlin, Eindhoven or Dubai and co-creates with entities such as the Dutch Design Foundation, Triennale Milano, iF Design and Kaunas European Capital of Culture 2022.

Framed in this program of strategic alliances, a cycle of international content has been undertaken through agreements with “Guest Countries”, established as a replicable model to contribute to the internationalization of design. Among the first confirmed countries is the Netherlands, thanks to the collaboration of the Dutch embassy in Spain and leading entities in the country such as the Dutch Design Foundation and Design Academy Eindhoven.

The recent accession of València as World Design Capital 2022 as an official partner of the New European Bauhaus, marks the starting point of a movement that brings together 300 European entities and places the Mediterranean Bauhaus as the leader of the NEB movement at a regional level, with the ultimate goal to create solutions under the motto of “Beautiful, Sustainable, Together” to face global challenges.

The World Design Capital Valencia 2022 program has the involvement of 95% of the main exhibition venues and cultural entities in the city, such as IVAM, MuVIM, CCCC Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània, Bombas Gens, Fundación Chirivella Soriano, La Rambleta, Veles e Vents, Las Naves, Valencia Fair, Royal Shipyards, Museu Faller, Espai Alfaro, González Martí National Ceramic Museum, Manises Ceramic Museum, San Miguel de los Reyes Monastery and MACVAC Vilafamés. Along with them, many other spaces and key agents, such as the Valencia Conference Center, Fundación Conexus, Fundación Arquia, Institut Français de Valencia, Filmoteca, La Cabina, Cinema Jove, La Pinada Lab, Fallas I + E …

Schools and university centers have also been actively mobilized creating different projects within the capital: Polytechnic University of Valencia, University of Valencia, Jaume I University, UCH-CEU, ESIC, Barreira Arte + Diseño, EASD València and EASD Castellón , LABA Valencia, Berklee College of Music, Glasgow Caledonian University, among many others along with which initiatives continue to be added today.

Obviously,  World Design Capital Valencia 2022 would not be possible without the support of professional associations such as —ADCV, CDICV, READ, CTAV, COACV, ComunitAD, Colegio de Publicitarios de la Comunitat Valenciana, La Exprimidora, LAVAC, Dimova, ArtEnBlanc— and local institutions —Ajuntament de València, Generalitat Valenciana – IVACE, La Marina de València, Visit València, Feria Valencia and Diputació de València—.

Likewise, World Design Capital Valencia 2022 receives the support of collaborating companies such as Actiu, Aidimme, Andreu World, Escato, FINSA, Fuente Primavera, Gandia Blasco Group, Industrias Saludes, La Imprenta, Logopost, LZF-Lamps, Padima, Point, Profiltek , Punt, Rolser, Tau ceramics, Teika, Torrecid, Veles e Vents, Vondom and Zumex.