She’s making a comeback! The Saint-Etienne International Design Biennale opens this Wednesday, April 6 for an XXL edition on the bifurcations, it will last four months. Four months of exhibitions instead of just one and we must take advantage of this time because “design is consumed in small doses”. Advice from the director of the Cité du Design Thierry Mandon, guest of France Bleu Saint-Étienne Loire.
“You don’t have to dive in. Arrive at the Biennale, say to yourself I’m here, at 9 a.m. it opens, great, I’ll leave tonight at 6 p.m. I’ll have seen everything. Because there, you come out exhausted, rinsed, the brain compote. You have to come several times, hence the four months.”
Among the exhibitions of this 12th Biennial, there is one on cars, another one on housing, elements that are part of our daily life to be able to open the event to as many people as possible. “Design is not a work of art. You are in front of a work of art, you say Wow or you don’t like it, period. The Biennale, you are a little bit forced to think to understand the reasoning of the designer […]we took very everyday subjects, precisely to counterbalance that.”
Objective: 20% more visitors compared to 2019
Africa is the guest of honor at this Biennial with a dedicated exhibition and numerous activities. During the last edition in 2019, the event attracted 315,000 visitors. “I set myself very reasonable goals. I said 20% progress. Since I don’t like to achieve my goals, I set myself low goals.” The Biennale will end on July 31.