BRUSSELS.- Launched 2006 within the framework of the Fashion and Design year, the Design September festival brings together fifty events concerned with design. Furniture, objects, industrial products, graphic design, architecture: the spectrum of applications of this industrial discipline is enormous. And it affects a broad public. For the fourth consecutive year, a crowd of associations, institutions and other independent organisations have tuned up their violins to offer, between 10 September and 2 October 2009, a rich and varied programme: exhibitions, conferences, private showings, film screenings, debates, visits to designers’ studios, flea market, city tours, pecha kucha, and so on.
While championing its special features and giving preference to Belgian players, Design September is wide open to the international dimension. This year once again the festival will be able to take pride in inviting a broad panel of internationally recognised designers: Tom Dixon, Front Design, Mathieu Lehanneur and BarberOsgerby will thus take over from Ron Arad, Patrick Jouin, David Trubridge, the Bouroullecs, Alberto Meda, the 5.5 Designers, Brendan McFarlane, Maarten Baas, Jurgen Bey and Ora Ito. Moreover, this year for the first time Design September is organising an international colloquium on packaging design and European awards for design and innovation.
The diversity of the events provides evidence of the creative dynamism of a city that is unfortunately lacking a museum entirely devoted to design. However, following the example of the majority of metropolises (Paris, London, Milan, Amsterdam, Berlin, Tokyo, Singapore), Brussels as well will thrill for a month to the rhythm of design. A unifying force, this annual event offers a resonance chamber for creativity and for initiatives launched by the design sector in Brussels. In this way the capital of Europe is developing a tradition of avant-garde research and development that it has carried within it since the industrial age, while depending upon its friendly and human image and identity.
