Lille Metropole 2020 World Design Capital Press kit la An original production a labourby Lille Metropole of love2020, World Design Capital Hosted as part of the Autumn manufactureat Saint Sauveur with lille3000 LILLE METROPOLE 2020 WORLD DESIGN CAPITAL The European Metropolis of Lille suc- We need to change the ‘programme’ by native approach. Our Maison POCs and ceeded Turin, Seoul, Helsinki, Cape re-examining both content and form in exhibitions are the laboratories for this Town, Taipei and Mexico City as World a post-COVID context. Lille Metropole new world. The curators are rethinking Design Capital in 2020. Since 2008, 2020 was conceived and built around them along these lines. We want to see the title of World Design Capital© is values and challenges that are crucial more exchanging of best practices, awarded every two years by the World for living and moving forward in the debate, learning, and merging of fo- Design Organization (WDO), it reco- best way possible, since isn’t the very rums dedicated to the imagination and gnizes cities for their effective use of essence of design the capacity to anti- the construction of ‘halycon days’. We design to drive economic, social, cultu- cipate the future. Our Maison POCs— can expect new ways of doing things ral, and environmental development. Caring, Collaborative City, Housing, since face-to-face gatherings will be Circular Economy and Public Action— challenging and perhaps still subject to The World Design Capital is back to are all founded on the ideas of local lockdown measures. Design is a means business after a few weeks off the radar stakeholders. to resilience, renewable energy, the following the unprecedented and unex- common good. To plan for sustainability pected public health crisis, which forced They propose solutions at a time when in a post-COVID world, we need to look us to push back our long-planned acti- we are rediscovering the importance to many disciplines, all of which have vities. During this unusual period, POC of looking out for others, thinking up something to offer: from philosophy project leaders, desi¬gners, exhibition new ways to connect socially des- and economics to history, ecology and curators, Maison POC organisers, busi- pite lockdown, mobilising collective technology. As this necessarily inter- nesses, associations and communities intelli¬gence, waking up to our res- disciplinary research is pursued, design involved with the World Design Capital ponsibility to our ecosystem and our has specific strengths that can benefit have not stopped planning, designing dependence on it, and restoring the us all: empathy for human¬kind and for and imagining their comeback. public interest and public actors. By the planet—with which it is inextricably anticipating these ‘proofs of concept’ linked; creativity—we need to think way We have put together a denser and before the crisis, we were already pre- more compact programme that will be outside the box; the pursuit of cross- paring for the world after the crisis fertilisation—our major exhibitions are presented from 9 September to 15 No- before we saw it coming. vember 2020 so that the key elements a testament to this; the experimental already designed and produced can And now we are more ready than we method; the willingness to do something be shared, talked about and put to the thought possible! New Ways of the and come up with concrete solutions, test. Partner exhibitions are gradually World, Sens Fiction, la manufacture above and beyond orders from on high reopening and will continue to do so : a labour of Love, and Designer(s) du and core values, at the same time as through to 2021. Design, the main exhibitions in our imagining future behaviours. programme were already shaping a The World Design Capital 2020 will be new world and highlighting the need more than a simple ‘postponed’ version for urgent action even before the pan- of the spring and summer programme demic. Now they should be seen and we had planned. The return will be experienced more widely than ever. more than just a digital reset. The cir- But this new order demands an alter- cumstances are completely different. 2 Press kit LA MANUFACTURE a labour of love Press kit LA MANUFACTURE a labour of love 3 PRESS RELEASE LA MANUFACTURE a labour of love This exhibition, curated by world-re- Designers are buying or setting up nowned trend forecaster Lidewij Edel- proper factories, developing co-wor- koort and Philip Fimmano, explores king spaces and sharing machinery, the way a new generation of designers working in open-source ways and re- is experimenting with materials and cycling materials piling up on our land manufacturing processes. and in our seas. The joy of manufactu- ring is palpable. These hubs of design, Fully resonating with the public health exchange and manufacturing are be- crisis we are living through, it starts coming successful cottage industries. from the premise that if we do not take The designer is at once artist, artisan active steps to slow down consump- and administrator, driven by a passion tion and reinvent our production for every stage and aspect of his or practices, our planet will not stand a her enterprise. This approach coinci- chance. The world is finally becoming des with a significant emerging trend future-thinking and reshaping the in philosophy—New Materialism—that cultural landscape and changing its states that all materials are alive and values along with it—as borne out by release energy. design. The manufacture of reclaimed, re- We are developing new solutions for cycled and invented materials sup- sharing between designer and artisan, ports this theory. designer and the underprivileged, designer and amateur, designer and designer. A new dawn brings hope for an alternative way to manufacture A project curated by Lidewij Edelkoort success, recognition and profit. Here and Philip Fimmano for Lille Metropole 2020, the capital is human. World Design Capital and hosted as part A labour of love. of Autumn at Saint Sauveur with lille3000 4 PressDossier kit de LA presse MANUFACTURE LA MANUFACTURE a labour of a labourlove of love Press kit LA MANUFACTURE a labour of love 5 EXHIBITION - FACTORY Inspired by the structure of a factory, the Onsite during weekends, two pop-up exhibition La manufacture: a labour of workshops will bring the Gare Saint love is designed as a stroll through the Sauveur to life. An atelier by About A heart of an industrial factory where forms Worker will celebrate workers’ uniforms and raw materials follow one another: and illustrates how employees can be the glass, wood, pulp, clay, stone, metals, incorporated in the creative process. In textiles and salvaged materials are the collaboration with local residents, blue subject of specific sections within which work aprons will be sewn for the exhibition 70 international designers reinterpret the guides and volunteers. Also on display concept of materiality. Objects of design is a working installation by Daniel Harris, punctuate this journey, accompanied by founder of the London Cloth Company, video documentaries, testifying to the the first weaving mill to open in the city different processes of production used or in over 100 years. He collects discarded sometimes invented by the designers of textile-making machinery, restoring them this new generation. to weave new tweed textiles. Visitors to the exhibit will be welcomed Designed by Joost van Bleiswijk, the by a lineup of factory worker’s lockers scenography of the exhibition incorporates designed by Studio Job for Lensvelt, as only materials from the construction well as hanging brooms made by Social industry, especially bricks from the North, Label. Constructed by people with special and will be fully recycled after the event needs from discarded parts from a bike closes. factory, these sustainable brooms are a powerful metaphor for wiping the past clean for a fresh start. 12 themes punctuate the exhibition Weaving Wonder Creating Community Lensvelt and Studio Job Netherlands Accumulating Remnants Forging Alloy Job cabinet (2011) by Lensvelt and Studio Job. Photo by JW Kaldenbach Excavating Fragments Throwing Earth Pulping Shape Carving Stone Blowing Magic Working Wood Gathering Fibre Growing Design 6 Press kit LA MANUFACTURE a labour of love Press kit LA MANUFACTURE a labour of love 7 Weaving Wonder Daniel Harris collects discarded textile making machinery, accumulating several looms to restore them as one perfectly working specimen. The countryside is riddled with remnants from the Industrial Age, “ready to be reinvented” Harris professes. When his hobby outgrew his initial workshop, he decided to take the plunge and start up a mill in London. The London Cloth Company is the first textile plant to return to the city in over a hundred years! Harris hacks antiquated looms to produce almost forgotten qualities in cloth; structures and compositions from a faraway past, dusted off and renewed, adopted for our time. Simone Post Vlisco Recycled Carpet (2015)by Simone Post - photo Studio Simone Post Netherlands Since the beginning of the 21st century, a revival of textile making has brought innovative ideas from a creative crowd of designers inventing new sources and unknown techniques. Passionate more than most other professionals, textile makers dedicate their lives to the crafting of exceptional cloth. The results are intriguing for the general public, making textiles totally relevant again. Running shoes made from knits, raincoats from recycled nylon, sweaters knitted from rags; creative clothes seem to be coming back again. The research brings new ingredients such as milk proteins, kelp and crustaceans, with decayed flowers and food waste as dyeing agents. Laser cutting, pulp making and coiling are techniques that inspire new visions of fabrics. Most works use recycling as a key component, assembling leftovers from the manufacturing floor, collecting plastics from the oceans and using old clothes as new ingredients.