The Global Shift

#27 During the Milan Design Week the Vitra Design Museum brings together thinkers and designers from the Global North and the Global South for a day of discussions and lectures. #salone2015

At the start of the 21st century, major shifts in global power structures coincide – and possibly correlate – with a mounting discussion around the potential of design. 

Images from the Vitra Design Museum exhibition "Making Africa – A Continent of Contemporary Design". Top: Idumota Market, Lagos 2081A.D. from the Our Africa 2081A.D. series, illustration for the Ikiré Jones Heritage Menswear Collection, 2013, © Courtesy Olalekan and Walé Oyéjidé. Above: Omar Victor Diop, Mame, photograph from the series The Studio of Vanities, 2013 © Victor Omar Diop, 2014, Courtesy Magnin-A Gallery, Paris

To delve deeper into this subject matter, the Vitra Design Museum brings together prominent thinkers and designers from the Global North and the Global South for a day of discussions and lectures. The speakers explore pertinent areas of contemporary design discourse such as the future of production, social design and the merger of analogue and digital technologies. The question at hand: Can concepts that originate outside our traditional, Western-centric understanding of design offer an entirely new perspective and perhaps more relevant approaches in addressing today’s challenges?


April 15, h.2–6 pm
The Global Shift: Who shapes the future of design?
Discussion Forum
Palazzo Clerici
Via Clerici 5, Milan