Australia’s largest and leading annual design festival presents its eighth edition in 2024 with 11 days of 300+ innovative exhibitions, displays, symposiums and talks throughout metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.
Highlights in the 2024 program include a keynote from Nigerian architect Tosin Oshinowo, a symposium exploring speculative riverside designs for the Birrarung, the tenth year of Melbourne Art Book Fair, plus presentations of work by Visnja Brdar, Jessie French, Sruli Recht and Ross Gardam.
Exploring the theme of ‘Design the world you want’, the 2024 program brings into focus the use of energy, ethics and ecology to encourage positive change, reimagine existing systems and offer innovative design solutions to complex global challenges. ‘Energy’ examines how design can champion new technologies to enact society’s transition to renewables; ‘ethics’ demonstrates how design can be guided by societal values; and ‘ecology’ invites designers to respond to the physical environment and considering the influence of nature.
Image photographed for Identity magazine
Photo: Bashar Belal
Program highlights at the NGV include:
- A keynote talk by Nigerian architect Tosin Oshinowo, sharing insights into her socially responsive approaches to urbanism.
- A public symposium held in anticipation of the upcoming NGV exhibition Reimagining Birrarung: Design Concepts for 2070, which challenges eight leading Australian landscape architects to develop radical speculative designs that reinvent sites along Birrarung (the Yarra River) opening at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia in August 2024.
- As part of Melbourne Art Book Fair‘s tenth year, UK-based Katy Hessel, esteemed curator, art historian and author of The Story of Art Without Men,presents a talk in partnership with The Wheeler Centre.
- A keynote talk from the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Senior Curator of Africa and Diaspora Textiles and Fashion, Dr Christine Checinska, accompanied by a diverse range of public programs curated by Africa Fashion Program Co-Curator Dorcas Maphakela, will highlight the diverse and varied fashion culture of the African continent in celebration of Africa Fashion. The exhibition, opening at NGV International in May, celebrates the creativity, innovation and indelible global impact of African fashions from the mid-twentieth century to the present day.
Photo: Tobias Titz
Satellite program Design and Death, shines a light on the architecture, places, issues and practices associated with the end of life. Presented by Open House Melbourne, the series of talks and tours – including a tour of Bunurong Memorial Park – explores the relationship between design and death to discover how the spaces we associate with death and burial can provoke more thought about life and how we live it.
Melbourne Design Week Film Festival will present a series of films that explore the impact of architecture and design through the moving image and its power to affect change, innovate and shape community, cities and the environment.
Galleries and design curators will present a series of exhibitions highlighting the inspiring scope of Australian designers with displays at Craft, Tarrawarra Musuem of Art, Tolarno, MUMA, Pieces of Eight, Useful Objects, and more. Australia’s leading showrooms, brands and design studios will also participate with exhibitions taking place at venues including Aesop, Brickworks, Cult, Spacecraft, Tait, Living Edge, Mobilia, Christopher Boots and House Editions.
Melbourne Design Week takes place 23 May – 2 June 2024 at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne and at various locations throughout metropolitan and regional Victoria.
The full program and bookings will be available online from 11 April 2024. The majority of Melbourne Design Week is free to attend with some events requiring bookings due to venue capacities. designweek.melbourne
