València World Design Capital 2022

This is tomorrow

Today is tomorrow is inspired by the exhibition This is tomorrow (London, 1956) in which artists, architects and designers came together as an experience of integration of the arts projecting a vision of the future in new ways of life. This experience, which includes earlier ones such as those of the Bauhaus, are incorporated as references in our initiative. In the Today is Tomorrow project, LAVAC joins the purposes that inspire the celebration of Valencia as World Design Capital, linking the activities developed by the contemporary art galleries to those proposed in the design capital programme. The result of this collaboration is the agreement signed by LAVAC and Valencia World Design Capital for the development of this project.

Contemporary art and design are fields of creation that share a broad space for action and work. Throughout the twentieth century, and especially since the emergence of the Bauhaus, this space, as we have pointed out, has been growing. Recently, the European Union has launched the New European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative as a platform for convergence, updating the Bauhaus principles. Its aims include designing new ways of living in which art, culture, social inclusion, science and technology converge. These purposes require collective participation to build a better and more beautiful future for all. Art and design share these aims and the celebration of Valencia as World Design Capital is the ideal opportunity to express and materialise them, raising the awareness and participation of a wide public in a territory of the Valencian Community.

Based on these considerations, the objectives of this project are as follows:

• To contribute from contemporary art to consolidate the challenges posed by the NEB in the celebration of Valencia as World Design Capital.
• To give visibility to the work carried out by contemporary art galleries in the Valencia Region within the framework of the Valencia World Design Capital programme, based on an understanding of art as a medium open to rethinking the world.
• To incorporate the participation of a wider and more diverse public in LAVAC’s exhibition programmes, linking the public participating in the activities of Valencia World Design Capital and those developed by the galleries.
• To reinforce the common space of contemporary creation between art and design, signifying this close relationship and assuming the remains of the NEB as an opportunity for joint transformation.
• To contribute the values inherent to art such as, among others, creativity, innovation, research, reflection, communication and critical spirit.

The principles and values of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) propose, as a basis, a dialogue and reflection on how to transform the way we live together. It proposes exploring and discovering new solutions for the improvement of many different aspects of everyday life. Its principles are based on the need to extend creativity from a collective dimension that affects everyday life in terms of thought, public space, urban planning, architecture, design and fashion. These principles, among others, are: sustainability, inclusion and diversity, participation and collectivity and innovation.
Exhibitions are ideal places for reflection and the expression of different ways of seeing the world and understanding what surrounds us in everyday life. They are spaces of communication, in direct relation with very diverse audiences, in which, in a free and inclusive way, artists interpret this relationship with the world. They point out imbalances and discover other ways of relating to each other that allow us to advance in other ways of seeing, understanding and relating to each other. The activities proposed by LAVAC, in the framework of collaboration with Valencia World Design Capital, consist of the programming of specific exhibitions, performances, talks, round tables and workshops that converge with the challenges and principles proposed by the NEB. These activities will take place in the galleries’ own spaces according to their usual programme, which will be announced throughout 2022 and the first quarter of 2023.

“Today is tomorrow’ is a project co-created by LAVAC and València World Design Capital 2022, in the framework of the New European Bauhaus initiative, with the collaboration of Bodegas Arráez.

For the communication of this project LAVAC incorporates the image designed by Antonio Ballesteros in collaboration with the artist Luce.

Curator:
José Luis Clemente