LIÈGE.- Reciprocity Design Liège: the international triennial that offers a different angle on design from the perspective of social innovation.

Reciprocity is the result of a joint organisation of the department Culture of the Province de Liège, the Office provincial des Métiers d’Art de Liège (OPMA) and Wallonie Design, an initiative of Paul-Émile Mottard, Provincial deputy – President in charge of Culture. Giovanna Massoni is its artistic director. Since 2005, she is curator of exhibitions of Belgian and international design and is also consultant and journalist.

From 5 October until 25 November, Reciprocity proposes a unique programme : exhibitions, workshops, seminars & debates, research/ actions, events in the neighbouring regions and collaborative projects.

This 2018 editions has three major axes

• Design faced with fragility and precarity
• The teaching of design as a place for experiment and research
• Design as a multidisciplinary and shared place to work, oriented towards social and public innovation.

Three themes will be addressed by the curators Nawal Bakouri, Lieven de Couvreur, Jean-Philipe Possoz,… and their guest of honour, Oliviero Toscani, co-founder with Luciano Benetton and artistic director of Fabrica for the exhibition Confessions coproduced by Reciprocity. The theme of education will be tackled in the exhibition LES Nouveaux Objet (Pedagogiques) in Espace Saint-Antoine in the Musée de la Vie Wallonne, curated by Giovanna Massoni and Anna Bernagozzi, who will also be present.

The theme of this third edition deals with the future creative pole Bavière, a major project of the Province de Liège, and the research of Welcome to_that is based on it. It is done by experts in social innovative design Nik Baerten and Virginia Tassinari. It is a project of social innovation & design developed with the inhabitants, teachers and students of ESA Saint-Luc and HEPL. Seminars and workshops are aimed at active and social participation.

Reciprocity is also a project that crosses (national) borders. An exhibition that is organised by Cube Design Museum in Kerkrade (NL) in Liège and a series of extra-muros events in the Euregio Meuse-Rhin contribute animating a programme that is already wide and diverse. Since its first edition in 2012 under this name – which followed the Biennale de Design de Liège that was launched in 2002 – RECIPROCITY positions itself as one of the rare international exhibitions that question and upgrade the role of design, architecture and graphic design in cultural, economic and social transformations for a life that is more balance, durable and inclusive.