Montréal creativity showcased at the UNESCO Creative Cities Annual Meeting in Enghien-les-Bains, France
Opportunities to highlight Montréal design on the international stage are on the rise. Montréal’s Bureau du design strives to help designers and architects make the most of these career-enhancing events. Here is an overview of recent activities that have helped us share Montréal expertise and best design practices and give local designers a chance to meet with international peers.
Every year, members of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, totalling 116 cities in 50 countries to date, gather to meet new members, discuss the network’s growth, share expertise, and initiate joint projects.
This year’s meeting took place June 29 to July 2 in Enghien-les-Bains, France, a UNESCO Creative City in media arts, with the theme Creativity towards sustainable cities: designing inclusive public spaces in the digital age, an eminently suitable topic for promoting the expertise and achievements of the Quartier des spectacles Partnership, especially when it comes to strategies for holding urban activities in winter.
At the Bureau du design’s suggestion, UNESCO provided speaking opportunities to the Partnership’s Executive Director, Pierre Fortin, and award-winning architect of installations such as Entre les rangs, Rami Bebawi, of the design firm KANVA. These two ambassadors generated considerable interest with the Luminothérapie competition, which encourages local creativity and promotes new artistic practices in public spaces, especially in the area of urban installations and digital arts.
The Bureau du design also used the concurrent UNESCO Cities of Design meeting to promote the World Design Summit, taking place in Montréal in October, and to encourage broad international participation in the international multidisciplinary landscape architecture competition Place des Montréalaises.
Montréal creativity was also visible in situ because in parallel to the meeting, UNESCO cities of design were asked to submit innovative connected objects for the international exhibition Are you talking to me? After a call for proposals, Montréal submitted a number of items, four of which were selected by the exhibition curators: SmartHalo and OMbra from OMsignal, along with the student projects beAT and Rouge Citron. After Enghien-les-Bains, the exhibition will run at the Cité du design in Saint-Étienne, France until January 2018. Another great showcase for Montréal businesses.
