Be Wild, Act and Change

Be Wild, Act & Change. The end of April will see the start of Design Fest Gent, a new biennial 10-day festival that offers designers space to present their ground-breaking ideas. By focusing on sustainability in all its facets, Design Fest not only wants to inspire the visitors and residents of Ghent but also challenge them and encourage dialogue.

Design Fest Gent demonstrates what design can (and indeed should) be: inquisitive, experimental and activistic. The festival encourages creativity and will become a matchmaker for new collaborations between designers, knowledge institutions, organizations and the industry. These parties join forces because design is so much more than making objects. Moreover, the aim of Design Fest is not merely to present things but also to focus on creation, experience, meeting, stimulation and amazement.

An extensive range of installations, workshops and lectures are bundled in three content clusters: Look Back, Move Forward and Do Care. Look Back shows projects bringing together craft, tradition and new technology. Move forward focuses on hybrid collaborations between science, design and technology with nature as a blueprint. Do Care gathers designs with a social impact.

The festival showcases a unique selection of existing projects and new creation assignments, which were selected under the supervision of curator Siegrid Demyttenaere in close dialogue with the partners of the festival and six co-curators Christel De Maeyer, Nathalie Goethals, Heleen Sintobin, Unfold: Claire Warnier and Dries Verbruggen, Bram Vanderbeke and Sep Verboom.

For its programme of workshops and lectures Design Fest Gent uses theme days on food waste, water, biobased materials, technology, urban mining crafts and circular building.

The scenography was done by Doorzon Interieurarchitecten, Theo De Meyer and Bram Vanderbeke.

Design Fest Gent is a collaboration between Design Museum Gent, Artevelde Hogeschool, Flanders DC, Ghent Museum of Industry, KASK & Conservatorium (HOGENT - Howest), KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture, Luca | School of Arts, Ministry of Makers and University of Ghent.