The first edition of the International Design Biennial in Liège was created in 2002 on the initiative of Paul-Emile Mottard, Provincial Deputy in charge of Culture in Liège and Chairman of the OPMA (Office Provincial des Métiers d’Art). This unique event gets each time a growing success. For the 6th edition which will take place from 5th to 28th October 2012, the Province and the OPMA have decided to reinforce their team: the general management has been given to Wallonie Design and the artistic direction to Giovanna Massoni.
The title
The general management and the artistic direction, together with the Province of Liège, have defined a general theme for the next editions of the event. RECIPROCITY is a declaration of respect. This formula underlines some ethical values which define design: exchange, respect, generosity. Focusing on the link between design and city/society, it expresses a state of mind, an action which encourages to share, to cross the know-how and to create together social processes of change.
Laboratory and showcase of ‘best practices’, RECIPROCITY gathers a great number of local, cross-border (Euregio Meuse-Rhine) and international people in order to generate a big debate on the role played today by design, involving media, professionals and public audience. Design as an agent for innovation and for social and civic cohesion is the red thread of RECIPROCITY. This choice positions the Walloon event at the centre of an international debate about the role of design.
Design as Methodology
Social innovation is a process of change where ideas emerge from different people directly involved in the solution research. The “inventors” are groups of people (creative communities) and the results are forms of organization (collaborative services). The role of design and of the designers is very important: increase the scale, create a systemic effect, recognize and translate the potential of a social project into a new prototype of product-service and create a frame which rationalizes the intentions of local actions to make them feasible and accessible to the public level. To do so, the “designer” should no longer be regarded as an isolated and specialized professional figure but indeed as a variety of persons who work together on the co-creation of more mature, practicable and repeatable solutions”. (from Ezio Manzini, Desis Newsletter 3: Design as agent of sustainable changes).
The ambition of RECIPROCITY is to set up a programme capable of spreading the change debate and of creating a series of scenarios for the implementation of sustainable solutions.
“Design as an agent for innovation and for social and civic cohesion is the red thread of RECIPROCITY”.
Paul-Emile Mottard, Provincial Deputy for Culture and Chairman of the OPMA.
