For its fifth edition, the Bologna Design Week is teaming up once again with Cersaie, the international exhibition promoted by Confindustria Ceramica, to celebrate the week of ceramic tile and bathroom furnishings in the Bologna city centre.

Curated and organised by Enrico Maria Pastorello, General Manager, and Elena Vai, Creative Director, the annual event held at locations throughout the city centre will explore the wonders of Bologna’s creative and architectural heritage. From Monday 23 to Saturday 28 September 2019, previews, exhibitions, workshops, competitions, film screenings and guided tours will be held in historic buildings, deconsecrated churches, art galleries and showrooms throughout the city centre. Dedicated to a region renowned for its fine living, the six-day event will explore aspects of design culture and creative industries and their ability to forge new relationships between people and places.

In partnership with the Emilia-Romagna regional government and in cooperation with the Istituzione Bologna Musei, Bologna Design Week will be hosting an exhibition project entitled Esprit Nouveau: le nouvel esprit des couleurs selon Le Corbusier. The event is promoted by Gigacer, a Faenza-based company that has innovated industrial technology and combined it with the local artisanal and artistic expertise in the field of ceramics. Organised with the support of the Fondation Les Couleurs Le Corbusier, the exhibition will explore the sense of colour in the work of Le Corbusier, an architect who used colours according to the different emotions he wanted to evoke in users in the interiors of his homes. The site-specific project will be held in the Padiglione de l'Esprit Nouveau, a unique architectural venue and BDW gateway in the Bologna exhibition centre.

The model home – a precise replica of the temporary pavilion created by Le Corbusier in 1925 in Paris and faithfully rebuilt in Bologna in 1977 by Giuliano Gresleri and José Oubrerie – will host lessons and meetings with contemporary masters of colour and architecture throughout the entire week.

Increasingly conceived as a participatory and co-design project, this fifth edition of the Bologna Design Week will be packed with creative and design ideas. The screening of a series of short films exploring the relationship between architecture, design objects and colour in residential spaces chosen from the film library’s archives will be organised in collaboration with Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna on Monday 23 September to mark the opening of BDW.

Site-specific installations will transform the foyer of the Teatro Comunale of Bologna for the week, confirming the well-established partnership with the theatre foundation. Following the success of last year’s event, on Saturday 28 September the foundation has decided to repeat Opera Reborn, a splendid exhibition of vintage furnishings, stage sets and theatre costumes, to celebrate the theatre’s history and heritage.

Organised in collaboration with Corvino Produzioni, the Piazza Verdi racconta initiative will host design talks and meetings with prominent cultural figures in the splendid architectural setting of the famous square during the summer festival curated by Marcello Corvino, part of the Village Piazza Verdi project coordinated by the cooperative Le Macchine Celibi.

In a project called Le Cinque Piazze, Via Zamboni will be transformed into an experimental living lab as part of a co-design and self-construction workshop centred on the city’s university area. The initiative will be organised by Fondazione Innovazione Urbana, the University of Bologna Architecture Department and Fondazione Rusconi in collaboration with the Bologna city council and with the participation of BDW and Viabizzuno. The two initiatives are part of the activities included in the ROCK project (Regeneration and Optimization of Cultural heritage in creative and Knowledge cities H2020-SC5-2016-2017 GA 730280).

An event entitled The Cassina Perspective. From innovation to icons held in the Ultradesign showroom will present the values of Cassina, including cutting-edge design, authenticity, excellence and a combination of technology and craftsmanship. On 24 September at 7:00 pm, Rodolfo Dordoni will give a talk on the Dress-Up! project, his new haute-couture sofa for Cassina.

A series of site-specific exhibitions will be held in some of the most prestigious city-centre galleries and showrooms: Spazio B5 with All Around Design, curated by Lorena Zúñiga Aguilera, a creative fusion between Italian and international designers; the spaces devoted to the artisanal and traditional design of Brazil spread out across museums, courtyards and libraries in the Marsala District, curated by Brazil S/A and Tania Campos Berni; the former Church of Santa Maria della Neve, now home to Insidesign Studiostore; the Glocal House with the event Note di Design per musica d’appartamento; and the historic Paradisoterrestre art and design showroom where Ceramica Bardelli will present its latest new products.

Wednesday 25 September will see the return of Design Night organised in collaboration with Confcommercio Ascom Bologna, when shops, restaurants, showrooms and galleries will be transformed into chambers of wonders with exhibits and special openings running until midnight.

Today marks the official launch of the fundraising campaign for the Immutea 1919 project, a music, theatre and dance performance created to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Bauhaus. In this original production, created for Bologna Design Week 2019 by Giambattista Gioccoli, director of the Teatro del Baraccano, Bologna will pay tribute to the movement which from the 1920s onwards had a profound influence on all areas of aesthetics, art and culture, establishing itself on the international circuit of global events devoted to the Bauhaus this year. The Ginger crowdfunding platform will support the project through the contributions of everyone who wants to see this unusual idea come to fruition.

Saturday 28 September will see the Closing Party, the most eagerly anticipated event of the year where all design week participants, whether designers, architects or design lovers, will meet in a splendid city-centre location.

Enrico Maria Pastorello, founder of the event, and Elena Vai, content curator, commented:
“Ever since Bologna Design Week was first organised in 2015, it was envisaged as a participatory territorial marketing project aimed at promoting the city. The 2019 edition will feature a programme of events held at venues increasingly scattered across the historic city centre, which will be publicised through a cross-channel communication strategy covering all media, from social channels to the website and free app. To complement the initiatives curated by the BDW team, participants can submit their own proposals for events and projects through the website bolognadesignweek.com by 30 June, thereby contributing to the programme of an event that has always done the utmost to engage with local players.”