Innovation and sustainability are the protagonists of the 2nd edition of the Italian Design Day in Barcelona. In particular, sustainability as present and future of design and of Made in Italy. The Consolato Generale d’Italia, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura and the Italian Camera di Commercio, together with the IED of Barcelona, join forces and give life to two exhibitions, open until March 9th, “Ferri Taglienti: Designing ecotools for future agriculture” and “Naturalmente Creativi“, inaugurated at the IED headquarters to demonstrate how design, architecture and nature can share the same soul. It is no coincidence that in Barcelona, a city dedicated to creative innovation and functional design linked to the development of solutions that help transform the urban and metropolitan environment in more sustainable conditions. The exhibition “Ferri Taglienti: Designing ecotools for future agriculture“, promoted and organized by the Italian Cultural Institute and the IED of Barcelona, was created and curated by Odo Fioravanti and Giulio Iacchetti, two of the most important designers in the international design scene, named this year ambassadors of Italian design in the world. Through a live performance of the creators themselves presents a selection of seven new woodworking tools designed by them and by three talented young Italian designers, Mario Scaricato, Vittorio Venezia and Attila Veress. Angelo Gioé, the new director of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Barcelona, who curated the exhibition says: “The two Italian designers prefer to return to direct contact with nature and peasant work by reinterpreting tools born at the dawn of agriculture. And so the agriculture’s tools, which from the Bronze Age have remained almost unchanged in shape, acquire a new aesthetic dignity and greater functionality“. The “Naturalmente Creativi” exhibition, on the other hand, is part of the ITmakES project of the Italian Embassy in Spain and brings together a selection of Italian designers or Italian designers who present a project, product or service as a concrete answer to a problem of sustainability. The aim is also to create an original opportunity for professional networking between designers, previously selected thanks to the ITmakEs platform, and some companies based in Barcelona, thanks to the mediation of the Italian Camera di Commercio in Barcelona. The fifteen designers identified by the director of IED Barcelona Alessandro Manetti, through the presentation of their professional path and the exposure of the portfolio will have the opportunity to get in touch with the companies involved in order to establish “sponsorships” aimed at developing products or services innovations that will be presented at the Italian Design Day 2019. “With this initiative – comments Gaia Lucilla Danese, new Consul General of Italy in Barcelona – we want to bet on a design that transcends the classical boundaries of the creation of forms and functionality: creativity plays an important role as a tool for work and communication in favor the environmental cause with the aim of generating a new culture that promotes the importance of adopting more sustainable lifestyles and consumption, improving the living conditions of everyone“. In line with the spirit of ITmakES, which promotes the creative exchange between Italy and Spain, based on common values such as sustainability, efficiency, beauty and fusion of new technologies and know-how, the Italian Design Day 2018 wants to tell how the synergy and the teamwork between creatives and companies can give life to a new economic-cultural revolution.
