The initiative, promoted jointly by the Ministery for Science and Technology and the Generalitat de Catalunya e dall’Ayuntamiento de Barcelona with support from the Diputación di Barcelona, looks set to become the most important cultural event to take place in Spain this year. This for the sheer number of events – more than a hundred exhibitions, festivals, street events, awards, competitions, conferences, workshops for children and city initiatives, as well as for its duration and geographical spread. The event also includes the new edition of the Primavera del Diseno.
Most of the events will take place in Barcelona, however other Catalan towns (Lleida, Tarragona, Girona) and cities around Spain (Madrid, Valencia, Bilbao) will also be hosting events in over 200 Spanish cultural centres, schools and museums.
The number of organisations involved also says something – 42 institutions, 11 associations, 16 museums and cultural centres, 33 universities and schools, 6 media organisations, 30 companies.
All this is sustained with a financing of 2,070 million euro contributed in equal parts by the three sponsoring organisations. The global value of the overall activity organised by distinct cultural entities amounts to 6 million euro.
The centenary of FAD is the element then which has catalysed the organisation of the Año del Diseño 2003: the sponsoring institutions have appointed FAD’s board of directors as organisers and nominated Joan Vinyets as commissioner. Although the official opening is tomorrow, events have already been underway since January. The board of directors is made up of president Juli Capella, vice president Oscar Martinez, secretary Emili Padrós and treasurer Josep Bohigas, as well as representatives of all the associations involved with FAD and who award prizes in architecture, industrial design and advertising graphics.
FAD, Fomento de las Artes Decorativas was founded in Barcelona 14 March 1903 by a group of artists and craftsmen based in the Centro Industrial de Cataluña, at 95 calle Hospital. Since then it has mirrored the style of the various periods which have occurred over the course of hundred years, registering events, technical innovations and changing taste. These hundred years have made FAD one of the most important private cultural organisations in the field of creativity, and not just in Spain, through the organisation of the first local events and participation in international ones, such as the International Furniture Fair in 1923, the Exposition of Decoration Arts in Paris in 1925, the International Expo in 1929 and the Triennale in Milan in 1936. From the appearance of design in the field of fine arts to the entry of new professions, the period under Franco, the creation of new cultural institutions such as the Museu d’Art Modern, the Escola Massana, the Macba, the future Museu del Disseny, FAD’s constant witness to the evolution and transformation of decorative arts constitutes a unique case.
An interesting aspect of the programme is that it is aimed at a broad public, it has been conceived to bring design to the streets, make it familiar and accessible in the eyes of everyone, since everyone, everyday, carries out activities in places which have in some way been designed. In this way the event intends to give dignity and popularity to the value of design as a factor of cultural, social and economic progress, assuming a self critical slant with respect to the image that society has of design and its various components.
The Año del Diseño also presents a space dedicated to businesses and the professional sector with meetings and conferences which will take place in different parts of the city (universities, leisure spaces, cultural centres) which sees the participation of John Tackara, Pedro Nueno, Javier Mariscal and Peter Saville.
The advertising agency *S,C,P,F… which has offices in Barcelona and Madrid (www.scpf.es) has created a publicity campaign which is based on the intention of being the total opposite of design. To demonstrate the usefulness of design in its essence it emphasises paradoxically the absence of designed elements with Times font, no colour, pictograms.
The internet site for Año del Diseño provides information about all the events, with the opportunity to take part in debates and interviews, exchange experiences and make communications around the theme of design. The Barcelona graphic design studio Vasava Artworks (www.vasava.es), who have designed it, have worked on the notion of creating a place where design, functionality and information are balanced. Placing design at the service of clarity of information, without an excess of graphics, the page is conceived “as a window from which to look at what is happening in the world of design”.
For a complete calendar of all the events, we leave you with the site, together with the thought of how much design is present in our lives, making up part of our daily routine and directly influencing the quality of our lives, giving value to the objects we use, facilitating our behaviour and making the spaces in which we move easier to use.
Any del Disseny 2003 Barcelona
FAD Fomento de las Artes Decorativas
Plaça dels Àngels 5-6, 08001 Barcelona
T +34-93-4437520
info@designyear2003.org
http://anydisseny2003.org
http://www.designyear2003.org
