With each show, Design Miami explores the topics that fuel contemporary design creation and collecting by hosting a series of conversations with cultural luminaries from around the world. Design Miami/ Basel in June will carry on the tradition through a special hybrid, live-virtual talks program curated by Design Miami/ Curatorial Director Maria Cristina Didero. For those unable to make it to Basel, all in-person talks will be live-streamed through YouTube, and a selection of exclusively digital talks will be available online from the opening of the fair on June 14th. Scroll on for highlights, and be sure to check out our Talks page to watch.

Live at Design Miami/ Basel:

June 14, 12pm CET

The Essence of Craftsmanship: The Meaning of Working With Hands Today

Curatorial Director Maria Cristina Didero talks with design expert Joy Herro and designer-makers Aldo Bakker and Nadja Zerunian about the preservation of traditions, rituals, and artistry in our fast-paced lives. How has the essence of craftsmanship shifted over the last dizzying decade?

June 14, 2pm CET

The Raw and the Cooked: Material Transformations

Gallerist Marc Benda, designer Philippe Malouin, and studio We+’s Toshiya Hayashi and Hokuto Ando join design expert Libby Sellers to discuss the poetic value of scrap. At a time when dwindling raw materials have become pivotal to both the geopolitical and environmental debate, this talk celebrates those who are presciently reinterpreting salvage.

June 14, 4pm CET

Institutions Today: Where We Are, What We Can Offer Tomorrow

How are museums evolving alongside us, and how are they meeting the ever-changing cultural needs of their visitors—now and in the future? This conversation brings together Design Miami/ Curatorial Director Maria Cristina Didero, Superintendent of Museo del Design Italiano Marco Sammicheli, Senior Curator at National Gallery of Victoria, and Deputy Director of Vitra Design Museum Sabrina Handler to discuss institutions as mirrors of contemporary society. 

June 15, 12pm CET

Working Within a Legacy: Editing Design Masterpieces

Founder of Muse Factory of Projects Francesca Molteni talks with Eames Office’s Eckart Maise and CEO of ETEL Lissa Carmona about rediscovering lost 20th-century masterpieces in company archives and forgotten notebooks. How can we update these masterpieces without distorting them, allowing them to be reborn in this new world?

June 15, 2pm CET

Forgotten Design of the 1980s: Why Is This Movement So Popular Now?

In recent years, the 1980s design aesthetic has been revived. Bringing together editor-curator Adam Štěch, journalist Laura May Todd, and designer-gallerist Max Radford, this talk focuses on the lesser-known 1980s design movements that played important roles in diversifying design culture.

June 15, 4pm CET

New Artistic Models in the Modern Golden Age

Anne-Laure Pingreoun, Founder of Alter-Projects, talks with sound artist Yuri Suzuki, Curatorial Director at Brookfield Properties Europe Real Estate Group Saff Williams, and CEO of Westgreen John Gilsenan about our current “golden age” of cultural initiatives and new models for public art.

Design Miami/ Basel Virtual Talks:

Collecting Objects, Collecting Experiences

How would a great collector define “collecting”? Would it differ from the definition a young designer might propose? Design Miami/ Curatorial Direction Maria Cristina Didero interviews veteran collector Alexander von Vegesack, art historian and curator Mathias Schwartz-Clauss, and artist-designer Misha Kahn.

Collecting the Intangible: The Rise of NFTs

Recent years have seen the rise of non-fungible tokens, scores of new digital artforms, and the metaverse itself. How has collecting design changed throughout this digital acceleration, and what challenges and opportunities are collectors facing today? Art market journalist Giacomo Nicolella Maschietti talks with Hunn Wai, Co-Founder of Lanzavecchia & Wai; Merel van Helsdingen, Founder and Managing Director at Nxt Museum; and Alexis Christodoulou, 3D artist.

Tree Huggers: Design as an Agent of Change, Presented by Tony's Chocolonely

Tree conservation lies at the heart of designing a better tomorrow. Design and culture editor Sujata Burman talks with architect and urban planner Stefano Boeri, Politecnico di Milano professor Maria Chiara Pastore, and artist-designer Es Devlin about how creative practices can advance more thoughtful built environments that coexist harmoniously with natural ecosystems.

The Future of Collectible Design

Over the past two decades technology has completely changed the way contemporary design is promoted, sold, viewed and purchased. Director of the Museum of Digital Art Ilaria Bonacossa talks with Founder of Vaspaar Italy Kaisha Davierwalla, Founder of Particle Bruno Bolfo, and digital artist Ezequiel Pini about what the future of collectible design looks like. ◆

Design Miami/ Basel is open to the public June 14-19, 2022. Preview Day, by invitation only, is June 13.

Tickets are on sale now! Purchase here.