Today, Thursday 20 June, marks the opening of the third edition of the Venice Design Biennial, a platform that connects Venice to the international network of designers.
The event which runs parallel to the first month of the Architecture Biennale takes forma round the theme “Design As Self-Portrait,” proposed by the curators and founders of the project Luca Berta and Francesca Giubilei. The idea is to think about the meaning and forms of self-portraiture from art history (with the formulation as an autonomous genre in the Renaissance) to modern approaches (just consider the “selfies” made with smartphones).
“Each of us projects self-representation into a freely floating space: identity becomes a design object – the curators explain. – To articulate identity, everyone can turn to the design of what they choose to associate with their bodies and their experiences: objects, devices, garments, physical and virtual spaces. We are all ‘curators’ of ourselves, self-designers who express ourselves in our choices of consumption of products or situations, and in our ways of communicating these choices to others.”
The main embodiment of this introspection is the group exhibition “Design As Self-Portrait” which contains works by over 20 international designers (at two locations). They include Arik Levy for Vibia and Citco, Audrey Large for Nilufar Gallery, Elisa Ossino for Amini, Arte 9 Milano, De Castelli, Officine Saffi and Salvatori, Estudio Campana for Carpenters Workshop Gallery, Edra and Friedman Benda, Ludovica + Roberto Palomba, Antonia Astori and Nicola De Ponti for Tubes.
In this context, the young Czech designer Tadeas Podracky, winner of the first edition of the Venice Design Biennial Residency 2020, will show a new series of works resulting from the experience in Venice, in contact with the local crafts tradition of Berta Battiloro and Ongaro and Fuga Specchi Veneziani.
Other exhibitions include Past Forward. Designers from the Land of Venice at the Archaeological Museum of Venice, welcoming works by 16 designers who live and work in Venice and its territory; Pretziada. A Self-Portrait in Design, the project curated by the duo Pretziada, hosted in the old Oratorio dei Crocifer; Walking on Water, a performative project and installation by the English fashion designer Jo Cope, in collaboration with the brand Piedàterre.
