ESTONIAN DESIGN DAYS IN MEXICO

Estonia and México have been finding a new partnership in envisioning a sustainable future through biodesign projects and circular economy initiatives. The Estonian Association of Designers and the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana have been collaborating in a profuse cultural exchange. They found a common ground in the subject of biodesign, noticing that the initiatives of green design or preservation are not enough. Biodesign offers a deeper collaboration with nature, a shift of vision from the Anthropocene to the Ecocene. Biodesign has been proving to work on a new scenario of connecting formulas, developing life-affirming strategies in an ecology of affection.

During the 2022 Tallinn Design Festival, a Mexican delegation of design students led by professor MoA Sergio Dávila working on biodesign projects at UAM Azcapotzalco were invited to display their BA final Projects. During the festival they found that many students and designers in Estonia had great initiatives on the matter and therefore decision to organize a well of Estonian Design in Mexico was born. “Two countries that are so distant and seemingly apart have so much in common, I guess that at the end an urgency to change our social practices is crucial, and the work that is showing new ways to produce goods, to solve needs, that promotes a shift in culture, is the work that we should promote as institutions”, says Sergio Dávila.

The Estonians Design Days in cooperation with Estonian Association of Designers and Estonian Art Academy will be held at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana. In the design faculty at Azcapotzalco Estonian designers will have workshops like the one from Reet Aus (PhD), upcycling second hand object to repurpose them into a new meaning, or working together with Phd Student at Tartu University Marie Vihmar to explore hygromorphic robots made with organic residues. Moreover, the students will have the chance to collaborate with Riina Õun in making biomaterials from food waste, and finally joining a workshop that will explore techniques to mend fashion with designer and Phd Student Marta Konovalov. The university will display 30 works from Estonian designers, curated exhibition by Kärt Ojavee (PhD), Annika Kaldoja and Marie Vihmar and hold some conferences that will explore the future of making thinks win a deeper bond with nature.

The results from the workshops and a ceremony with the president of the Estonian Association of Designers, Ilona Gurjanova, will be displayed at the gorgeous Gallery “Casa del Tiempo” at the heart of Mexico City on the 8th of March.

MoA Sergio Dávila hopes this cultural exchange will be fruitful, and that the conversation about having some new response ability towards our environments permeates the classrooms and gallery spaces. “We hope a seed of change flourishes in the professional practice of future designers.”

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Contact: Ilona Gurjanova, edl@edl.ee