Header Photo credit: Nic Tenwiggenhorn
The Festival of Design is an interdisciplinary design platform initiated by Design Republic in 2016 in Shanghai, with its founding partners Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu. This year, the festival is exploring the theme of “再 RE-”. In the post-pandemic world, it is vital to redefine our values and priorities, as well as rediscover the meaning of what we do with design.
Design Republic is dedicated to creating a platform for design talents and enthusiasts, providing exhibition and retail spaces, and interchange opportunities of ideas and discourses.
The vision of the festival is to embrace the communal aspect of design to be inclusive, interdisciplinary, and innovative through a diverse program of lectures, talks, exhibitions, and workshops. The Festival of Design places an emphasis on collaborative projects and communal engagement with an interest in initiatives focused on inspiring design stories. This emphasis on providing accessible and inclusive experiences remains a core aspect of the festival.
The Festival of Design is currently taking place in Shanghai, China, and can be visited until December 10th.
Previous speakers throughout the festival include Pablo Castro, Aric Chen, Amale Andraos, Konstantin Grcic, and Jennifer Lee. This year’s show features a standout lineup of keynote speakers including Anders Byriel (CEO of Kvadrat), Shay Alkalay (Co-Founder of Raw-Edges), Mark Lee (Co-Founder of Johnston Marklee), and many more.
This year’s program includes exhibitions, talks, film screenings, and forums presented by the participants in the festival.
The main exhibition focusing on the “RE-“ is taking place throughout the whole time span of the festival. Nowadays, “RE-“ is a crucial prefix because it signifies the idea of “to do again”. The exhibition is divided into six different sections: “RE-flect,” “RE-edition,” “RE-cycle,” “RE-generate,” “RE-imagine,” and “RE-“. It explores open-ended conceptual topics and invites everyone to reflect on their approach to design, thus reinvigorating our community and environment at large.
The Festival of Design says the exhibition – also hosted at the Design Republic – will explore “open-ended conceptual topics” and invite everyone “to reflect on their approach to design, thus reinvigorating our community and environment at large”.
