—3 July 2008, Paris
27 designers for Europe
L'expo 27 graphistes pour l'Europe, inaugure la saison culturelle européenne

Poster in Charles de Gaulle Aeroport, Paris. / Photo © Pierre Portelli

   27 designers for Europe
A poster designed by R2 represents Portugal at an exhibition curated by Philippe Apeloig, that takes place at the airports of Paris. Posters (4x3 m) were created by designers from all countries of the European Union. The main theme was “Walk” and the use of two European colors was requested. The exhibition was opened on July 1, 2008 by French minister of culture, Ms. Christine Albanel.

    fr
Chaque pas fait référence à un nouvel ensemble de pays de l’Union Européenne. Chaque empreinte réunit différents éléments typographiques qui se réorganisent en forme de territoire. Pas à pas l’empreinte prend sa substance. Un parcours sans départ et sans fin, un chemin de découverte.

Lizá Defossez Ramalho et Artur Rebelo
R2 design, 30/05/2008

—29/06 — 12/10/2008 / Torino, Italy
Flexibility - Design in a fast changing society
Torino World Design Capital 2008

© Rita João

Ross Lovegrove, matali crasset, Patricia Urquiola, Sigi Moeslinger and Masamichi Udagawa of the studio Antenna Design, Bertjan Pot, Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram, Ana Mir and Emili Padrós of Emiliana, Fernando Brízio, Giulio Iacchetti, these are the names of the internationally-famous designers – nine in all – who have been invited to participate with their creations in the important exhibition-event that has been organised by Torino 2008 World Design Capital to spotlight the year’s Leitmotif: flexibility, or rather, the ability to rapidly adapt oneself to changes. This ability has become a fundamental requisite for the survival and competitiveness of all social groups, from families to businesses and from cities to the concept of the Country as a system. The exhibition’s curator is Guta Moura Guedes, from Portugal, the director of Lisbon’s biennale Experimentadesign.

Nine installations have been created ad hoc for this exhibition, nine different points of view regarding the theme of flexibility. From the installation Mirror-blind by Bertjan Pot, who has created a flexible space by means of a wall of Venetian blinds made of mirrors that slowly turn and modify the perspective; to the project Spectre, by Antenna Design, which is inspired by a new way to use sandbags, setting them out in a manner that suggests different domestic areas. My treasures trash by Emiliana has been created as a public service that encourages people to leave objects that are “still alive” in urban environments so that others might benefit from them; the Flexible Bench by Giulio Iacchetti is special seating for urban furniture that, by rotating the backrest, transforms itself into shelter for the night. The futuristic vision of Ross Lovegrove finds inspiration in the liquid form of our deep, primordial origins, as he experiments with light and space; Stanze istantanee by matali crasset modifies domestic space according to need; the project Vendome by Clemens Weisshhaar & Reed Kram uses pre-defined parameters to produce a series of objects: stools, pedestals and tables of various heights. The renewable clothing by Fernando Brizio colours itself automatically and can be reused; and the material flexibility of the project Chasen by Patricia Urquiola translates into the possibility of changing the form and dispersion of light. The exhibition also includes over one hundred real objects that are already in production, films and photographs that deal with and explore the theme of flexibility in various ways.

The exhibition is completed by the work of the sound designers Enrico Ascoli and Rui Gato, the creations by the visual designer Margarida Moura Guedes, while the display and graphics were overseen respectively by Pedro Gadanho and by Lizá Defossez Ramalho and Artur Rebelo of the studio R2.

Today, we all continuously modify our behaviour in response to change. Design, the work of designing, is a discipline whose very nature adopts a flexible attitude as it searches for valid answers that can survive the changeability of things by adapting them, and thus represents a valid help in the ongoing confrontation with change. This is the reasoning behind this exhibition – one of the major events of the year during which Torino is the first world capital of design – as it studies the tie between flexibility and design. Flexibility in the sense of the ease with which a system or a component of a system can modify and adapt itself so that it can be used in different applications or environments from those for which it was originally designed.
The location of the exhibition, therefore, should not be a surprise: the “Ex-Carceri Le Nuove,” the former prison, an emblematic example of how a structure can radically modify its destined use, from a place of closure by antonomasia to the expression of aperture towards citizens, tourists, the world in general. The exhibition unfolds along the corridors and prison cells, creating an itinerary in three stages with a background of soundscreated by the musical research that has been conducted by two sound designers. The effect is strident and dramatic: the representation of flexibility and the constriction of the location dialog together, creating an unusual conceptual oxymoron. In the circular area of the panopticum, the central area from which the detention wings branch out, the exhibition introduces the visitor to the many meanings of flexibility today. The men’s wing features examples of efficient design of objects and solutions in terms of their adaptability and versatility, in our homes, in the work place, in the city. The exhibition concludes in the women’s wing, with the nine installations that were created ad hoc by nine emerging designers in the world of design. But Flexibility. Design in a fast-changing society is more than just an exhibition. It will also feature two workshops and a debate. The two workshops, that were held yesterday and today, involved students and professionals as they explored the process of design, as applied to Torino, with some of the designers who created the installations on display.

Ex Carceri, Le Nuove ⁄ Via Borsellino ⁄ Torino
www.torinoworlddesigncapital.it

 —3 to 4 June 2008
Design multimedia
Seminários e workshops II
Universidade da Beira Interior
Faculdade de Artes e Letras
                                                                                                      

—20 Mars, 2008

—19 December, 2007
R2 Design / IVK Lectures

—Agost 2007
Rencontres de Lure
Tout ou rien – encyclopédie, universelle typographie
Semaine d’été 2007 à Lurs, du 19 au 25 août

Photo © Jacques Thomas

Avec Antoine Barnaud, Johannes Bergerhausen, Christian Bessigneul, Viviane Cabannes, Marc Combier, Antoine Denize, Mytil Ducomet, Martin Friedl, Thomas Huot-Marchand, Pierre Huyghebaert, Nathalie Latinus, Julien Masanès, Massin, Michel Melot, Daniel Mermet, Jan Middendorp, Claire Paulhan, Yves Perrousseaux, David Poullard, Thierry Puyfoulhoux, Liza Ramalho et Artur Rebelo (R2 Design), Alain Rey et Danièle Morvan, François Richaudeau, Perrine Rouillon, Jean-Baptiste Soufron et une exposition Michel Olyff et plus.

Une semaine d'exploration des « ouvrages » les plus ambitieux que notre société a pu produire :
lisibilité, accès à l'information, interfaces pour le papier ou les médias numériques, constitution des savoirs, rédaction collaborative, plaisir du regard et du feuilletage, enjeux sociétaux... cette source d'inspiration et de connaissance infinie que sont les encyclopédies peut fasciner, servir, tout simplement, ou amuser.
Tout : en voulant contenir tous les savoirs du monde, ces livres-bibliothèques se révèlent fragiles et menacés d'obsolescence ou même de vanité. Rien ?
Les auteurs, typographes, graphistes, artistes, éditeurs et réalisateurs présents se prêtent, avec le public des Rencontres, à l'exercice de la leçon d'Anatomie.

in, www.rencontresdelure.org/ete/somete2007.html

—From May 12th to June 24th 2007
Workshop in 18th International Poster and Graphic Arts Festival of Chaumont

Selina König (Germany), first prize / students workshop.

   Ateliers / Workshops
Seven Ateliers-Workshops, also dealing with the social issue “Global Warming”, will welcome 105
students from all around the world.
Their work made will be shown at the Entrepôt des Subsistances and the Jury composed of five
graphic designers will award three prizes on Saturday, May, 12th.

   Workshops Leaders
Cyril Cohen (France), El Fantasma de Heredia (Argentina) Anne-Marie Latrémolière (France), Paul Sahre (USA),
Liza Ramalho + Artur Rebelo (Portugal), Niklaus Troxler (Switzerland), Haichen Zhu (Republic of China)

—November 2006
Neuf femmes graphistes
Mois du graphisme d'Echirolles

— 13rd June 2006
Grand Prix of the Brno Biennale 2006
22nd International Biennale of Graphic Design Brno, Czech Republic (EN)

The International Biennale of Graphic Design in Brno, founded in 1963, is one of the longest running events of its kind in the world. Projects, opinions and trends in graphic design meet here from all four corners of the globe, where new directions for its future development are formed. 

The event is endorsed by ICOGRADA (International Council of Graphic Design Associations).

The 22nd International Biennale of Graphic Design Brno 2006, an event centring upon the graphics of posters, corporate identity, information and advertising, is part of a series of the only regularly-held graphic design shows in the Czech Republic. In the four decades of its existence, the Biennale has earned its reputation as a major graphic design exhibition, both in Europe and overseas, a fact confirmed by long-standing support from ICOGRADA (the International Council of Graphic Design Associations). At the head of the Biennale organisation are the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Moravian Gallery in Brno, in collaboration with the Design Centre CR, the Brno Biennale Association, the Union of Visual Artists of the Czech Republic and the Brno House of the Arts. Also involved are the representative state bodies of the City of Brno and the Region of South Moravia.
Over a span of four months, some of the most progressive contemporary trends in international graphic design will be presented in the main exhibition rooms of the Moravian Gallery (the Museum of Applied Arts, the Pražák Palace and the Governor’s Palace). Accompanying exhibitions will explore and reflect the relationship between free art and design, commemorate leading lights of graphic design, and map sections of design historiography that have not previously been available. These shows will be held in the Moravian Gallery in Brno, the Design Centre CR and in the Brno House of the Arts.

in, 22nd International Biennale of Graphic Design Brno 2006 – Press release for the BB 06 No. 04/06 of 5 June 2006
The Moravian Gallery in Brno

— April 2004
Workshop at Intuit Lab, Paris

Intuit Lab – workshop

Elaborer une vídeo experimentale sur un message à transmettre dans l’espace... Ce sujet très ouvert a permis à chaque étudiant de créer son message de façon non restrictive, valorisant sa propre perspective. Les objectifs étaient de mettre en jeu une certaine curiosité prospective et d’arriver à un discours experimental et personnel. Pendant l’atelier le groupe d’étudiants s’est révélé particulièrement enthousiaste et interessé, ce qui a été pour nous, extrêmement gratifiant—l’affiche qu’ils nous ont tous dédicacée est encore au mur du studio.

L’ambiance à Intuit-lab, les relations intenses entre tous les acteurs, ont occasionné des moments précieux auxquels on pense toujours avec plaisir.

Lizá Defossez Ramalho
Artur Rebelo