Being a guest country in DESIGN WEEK MEXICO 2017 is a great honor for Switzerland, especially a few months from the World Design Capital Mexico 2018 that will reveal the Mexican capital in the World.

My country has a long tradition of design which enjoys an excellent reputation worldwide, probably because of the way it ignores temporary trends and its concepts go beyond the formal presence in addition to having a very high degree of precision in production.

Designers such as Le Corbusier with its pioneering designs, Max Bill’s pragmatism, the long tradition of watchmaking, the USM Haller modular system that forms part of the permanent collection of the MoMa in New York, the bags made from recycled tarpaulins by Freitag or the Helvetica typography with its neutral trace and readable qualities are some examples of the timelessness in Swiss design and clarifies to us the reason of its relevance.

Switzerland has shared great ties in the field of design with Mexico for more than 70 years; such as the Swiss Hannes Meyer, who after being director of the Bauhaus school in Dessau, arrived in Mexico in 1938 where he lived for 10 years during which he was director of the Institute of Urbanism and Planning as well as the Popular Graphic Workshop. Another more contemporary example is Yves Béhar, who participated in 2010 in the project “See well to learn better“ designing eyeglasses for Mexican students of limited resources with visual acuity problems.

I invite you all to enjoy an extensive program of Swiss design events at Design Week Mexico, including: the historical exhibition “100 years of Swiss Design“ at the Museum of Modern Art, the 5 weeks residence of Julie Richoz and Nicolas Le Moigne at the Casa Wabi Foundation that will conclude with an exhibition of the resulting work, the participation of 4 Swiss designers in the collaborative project “Vision and Tradition“ with Mexican artisans of the State of Puebla, an ECAL exhibition about graphic and digital design at the Center for Digital Culture, and an exhibition of the Swiss Design Awards in Inédito at the Museo Tamayo.

Louis-José Touron
Ambassador of Switzerland in Mexico

1 Creativity and Change – Auditorio del Museo Tamayo

Creativity and Change is a forum where national and international speakers explore the connections between creativity, design, education, innovation and sustainability in order to find global solutions. Among the international speakers we have: Alexis Georgacopoulos, director of ECAL (University of Art and Design Lausanne).

2 Exposición 100 Años de Diseño – Museo Arte Moderno

Based on the exhibition “100 Jahre Schweizer Design“, shown at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich in 2014, this exhibition takes us through ten decades of development and innovation in the field of Swiss Design. The mexican edition “100 años de Diseño Suizo“ incorporates classical objects from Swiss design and projects that might seem more interesting for a Mexican audience; for example, the work of Swiss designers that made an impact in Mexico or Mexican designers that developed projects in Switzerland.

3 Visión y Tradición

Vision and Tradition is a workshop program where emerging designers (Julie Usel, Christophe Guberan, Thai Hua, Michel Charlot) from Switzerland and from Mexico worked collaboratively with craftsmen in Puebla, enabling a cultural dialogue between international creative communities and exploring the significance of traditional crafts in contemporary design.

4 Casa Wabi: Residencias de Julie Richoz y Nicolas Le Moigne

The Casa Wabi Foundation is a non-profit civil organization that seeks to promote social commitment through art. Nicola’s and Julie’s residence consists on a five week stay in Casa Wabi. The Swiss designers developed objects made out of palm fabric in collaboration with two ateliers from Santa Catarina Mechoacán in the state of Oaxaca. The result will be exhibited in Casa Wabi México as part of our SWISS DESIGN MEXICO 2017.

5 ECAL Graphic Design – Centro de Cultura Digital

ECAL (University of Art and Design Lausanne) has long been recognised as a world reference in terms of graphic design. Be it in designing books, catalogues, magazines or posters, typography or digital projects, ECAL students are able to embrace all fields of this discipline and to masterfully perform a wide variety of assignments. This success is largely based on a policy of workshops allowing them to learn from the best Swiss or international graphic deigners directly on the school premises. The exhibition and book “ECAL Graphic Design“ largely retraces projects conducted in the Bachelor Graphic Design and Master Art Direction courses over the past five years in the framework of these workshops.

6 TANE: minimal gold by Julie Usel y Torres+Hanhausen

TANE is a company that is characterized by its unparalleled passion for silver design and the demanding quality in the development of its pieces. As part the celebration of Switzerland as a guest country of Design Week Mexico 2017, TANE presents 2 gold collections developed in collaboration with Swiss designers under the minimal gold concept.

7 Documentales de Diseño Suizo + Visión y Tradición – Museo Tamayo

Projection of documentaries about renowned Swiss designers and the projection of the documentary “Vision and Tradition“ that shows the process of the workshops carried out by four young Swiss designers in collaboration with Mexican artisans and designers.

8 Swiss Design Awards – Museo Tamayo

2017 marks the 100th edition of the Swiss Design Awards - it first took place in 1918. Since then it hast wo goals: firstly, its funding is a form of direct economic support that helps designers make the jump from prototype to production. Secondly, it indirectly gives designers creative freedom and the will to innovate. Financial freedom and no time restraints allow them to develop and test new and unusual design solutions. A selection of 5 works from the products and objects category will be presented in the exhibition Inédito.

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