Reciprocity Design Liège 2018

Reciprocity design liège is an international triennale of design and social innovation organized by the Province of Liege-Culture in collaboration with OPMA and Wallonie Design. The event’s artistic director is Giovanna Massoni, who draws on her experience and engagement with the two previous editions. Since its first edition in 2012, Reciprocity has questioned design and its impact in cultural, economic and social contexts. Its main mission is to provoke, value, and welcome international expressions generated by an open and diversified approach. Here, design is intended as a critical space of research/action; a place for the reflection and production of ethical and sustainable projects.

The three central strands of the 2018 Triennale
While each edition of Reciprocity is intended to be a crossroads of various themes, the main objective of this edition is nevertheless to highlight the experiences of individuals and the community, opening up to a wide audience. Accessible, both in the choice of topics and the locations that host the events, the Triennale wants to create a bridge between the economy, the culture, the research, and the know-how in several areas of design: products, technology, industry, crafts, social innovation, graphic design, urbanism and architecture. All these different spheres of research and production are living laboratories. Their impact at the societal level is of crucial importance for the mission of this Triennale and design in general: redefining together the role of design and its impact on social change and citizen participation. The three central strands of the 2018 Triennale are:

–Design as an economic and cultural vector, capable of provoking a significant transformation of social awareness and ethical responsibility. In this respect, special focus is given to issues of care. A platform for Belgian and international design products and services that directly reflect on sustainable development, and cultural, technological, economic and societal innovation. As such, a series of exhibitions, workshops and a symposium investigate the response of international architects and designers to challenges associated with care and well-being, housing and daily objects. Issues of human, economic, and environmental fragility, and accessibility and adaptability, will all be explored in-depth.

–Design education as a place of experimentation and research for a sustainable and ethical future. As a result of a call for projects open to higher education institutes and universities offering design qualifications, an exhibition of selected works by students will draw up an inventory of design pedagogy across Europe. The aim and hope is to stimulate and promote interest in learning.

–Design as a shared space of multidisciplinary research & production geared towards social and public innovation. Here the role of designers is as facilitators of co-creative projects. We see these arise from a new civic responsibility and the principle of social inclusion, engaging directly in the urban, cultural, and economic problems of our cities and suburbs.

A major co-creation site in Europe
Reciprocity was born in order to contextualise design in the social fabric. Far from being a simple showcase that brings together products and trends, since it was founded, this Triennale has been a space of research and work that is assembled during the months preceding the inauguration of its exhibitions.

This edition comes from a set of laboratories that took place from the end of 2017: most of the main events in the 2018 programme are the result of workshops organised in schools, in research centres, and in FabLabs…

One of the main exhibitions, Fragilitas focuses on design’s (products, prototypes, graphics and architecture) engagement with different aspects of human fragility.

In the framework of an international symposium, curators and guest speakers will debate on fragility and precariousness, creativity and social engagement: Nik Baerten & Virginia Tassinari (Belgium), John Bingham-Hall / Theatrum Mundi (United Kingdom), Nawal Bakouri (France), Alissa Rees (Netherlands), Jean-Philippe Possoz (Belgium), Cyrille Hanappe (France), Paolo Cascone (Italy), Lieven De Couvreur (Belgium), Francesca Ostuzzi (Italy/Belgium), Anna Bernagozzi (France), Fabrica (Italy), Anya Sirota (United States).