Protesting Without Banners: Barcelona Design Week Takes Design to the Streets

A protest does not always need to be written on a banner. It can be an image, a phrase, an action, or a painted shop shutter. It can begin, simply, with a simple idea: what would happen if it were done differently? It is a question that is part of any design process. And, to find an answer, it must be put to the test: make a first prototype, check what works and what doesn't, modify it and, sometimes, start over. Because before reaching a final object, there are also ideas that fall by the wayside, tests that fail, and decisions that force us to look for another answer.

It is precisely this way of understanding design —as a process of trial and error, but also of questioning the world and seeking ways to change it— that Barcelona Design Week champions during its 21st edition. Created in 2006 by the Barcelona Design Centre, the week has consolidated itself as one of the reference events for design, interior design, art, and creativity in Barcelona, as well as a meeting point for professionals, students, companies, and creators from disciplines as diverse as fashion, communication, graphic design, architecture, or product design. An event that, moreover, is part of the international circuit of design weeks, which are held annually on different dates in cities such as Milan, London, or Paris.

This diversity is also reflected in a program that, for eleven days, will fill the city with exhibitions, installations, conversations, workshops, and projects. This year, from October 14 to 25, Design Week will bring together 140 activities in 80 spaces, with proposals that will extend beyond Barcelona and also reach Sabadell, Terrassa, and Esplugues de Llobregat. This distribution is not accidental: rather than concentrating design in a single space or neighborhood, the event brings it to different places and formats to show its variety and bring it closer to diverse audiences.

Activities that this year are articulated under the motto PRO-TEST, a play on words that unites two key concepts in the design process, prototyping and testing, with protest. The concept starts from the idea that design is a living process, which goes through various phases, prototypes, tests and changes before reaching the definitive result. And it is precisely in this process of testing, reformulating and seeking new answers where design can also become a tool to express a protest. 

Alessandro Manetti, curator of Barcelona Design Week for the third consecutive year, explains that the concept of this edition actually arose, inspired by a performance that has little to do with design: that of Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl, which he interprets as a form of creative protest against Donald Trump's migratory policies. "A creative protest without explicitly mentioning any message, without banners or emblems, but with a powerful audiovisual and design concept."

And it is precisely this capacity of design to question the present, imagine the future and propose new ways of doing things —like Bad Bunny in his performance— that Barcelona Design Week wants to explore this year. And it does so through a diverse program, which connects new generations, emerging brands and startups with established companies, brands and professionals, as well as students and new creative profiles. A mix of perspectives and experiences that seeks to show the diversity of current design and the different ways of understanding it.

A Design Week that goes beyond the framework

During the eleven days of Barcelona Design Week, then, there will not be a single stage or a single way of understanding design: exhibitions, installations, workshops, conversations and experiences will occupy spaces throughout the city and also in other municipalities.

One of the most visible examples of this edition will be the Ruta de les Persianes (Route of the Blinds), an initiative that brings design directly to the streets and shops of the neighborhoods. In this edition, 185 shops from ten districts of Barcelona, with the participation of 15 associations and commercial hubs and 11 artists, will transform the blinds of establishments into surfaces for creation. The proposal also summarizes one of the week's aims: that design not be restricted to studios, schools, or companies, but rather become part of everyday space. "The Design Week only makes sense when the city makes it its own," states Isabel Roig, director of the Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation and of the Barcelona Design Week. 

The week also seeks to connect different trajectories and generations. Underground BDW, now in its third edition, will bring together 30 exhibitors from eight countries at the Parking Gallery of LCI Barcelona in a format halfway between a fair and a collective exhibition. At Disseny Hub Barcelona, the official venue for the program, the Enjoia’t Awards will share space with the ADG Laus and the exhibition André Ricard, design in use, while other proposals will focus on students and new creators.

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But beyond this space, activities will also be distributed in other areas of the city such as Roca Gallery, the setting for the presentation of the program, or LCI Barcelona, which will present typography projects, posters, and type families developed by fourth-year students and alumni. At the same time, consolidated brands like Kave Home will show the processes behind their products with The Journey, an exhibition focused on the prototypes, decisions, and knowledge behind each piece.

This mix of profiles connects with a broader commitment of the Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation, the entity that organizes the Design Week: to reinforce Barcelona as a meeting point and projection of creative talent. For this reason, the institution has decided to promote this year Inspired in Barcelona, a platform that aims to give international projection to creative professionals linked to the city, whether they were born there, studied there, worked there, or found a source of inspiration there. The idea, explains Enric Jové, director of the Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation, is to connect this creative community with Barcelona and also project it outwards. 

And the program continues to open up to other formats: WMF Gilda Lab will propose a participatory experience around gastronomy; Common Currents will present El Teler de la Memòria (The Loom of Memory), an installation that invites visitors to build a living archive with photographs, notes, and drawings; and different spaces in the city will host conversations, exhibitions, and projects that further expand the map of Barcelona design.