DesignTalks 2023 - Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of Architecture & Design at The Museum of Modern Art, producer of the MoMA R&D Salons, and co-founder of the platform Design Emergency

Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of Architecture & Design at The Museum of Modern Art, producer of the MoMA R&D Salons, and co-founder of the platform Design Emergency, will be speaking at DesignTalks 2023 in Harpa on Wednesday 3rd May.

Paola Antonelli is one of the world’s most respected curators of Arcitechture and Design. She’s a senior Curator of Architecture & Design at The Museum of Modern Art, as well as MoMA’s founding Director of Research & Development. The Instagram platform and book Design Emergency (@design.emergency), which she co-founded with design critic Alice Rawsthorn in 2020, is an ongoing investigation on design's power to envision a better future for all. Her work investigates design’s impact on everyday experience, often including overlooked objects and practices, and combining design, architecture, art, science, and technology. Her exhibitions, lectures, and writings contemplate design’s intersection and interaction with other fields (from technology and biology to popular culture) and with life—that of individuals, communities, all species, and all planets. Her goal is to promote people’s understanding of design, until its positive influence on the world is universally acknowledged. Among her most recent work are the curation of XXII Triennale di Milano, Broken Nature, and MoMA’s Material Ecology––on the work of architect Neri Oxman––and Never Alone, on video games and interactive design.

DesignTalks 2023 will take place in Harpa on the 3rd of May and is curated by Hlin Helga Guðlaugsdóttir. 

This year’s theme is What now? and the event will tackle this question, explore and showcase some answers and alternatives, discuss current challenges for designers and architects and, if successful, raise even more questions!

"Humbleness. No one knows everything, but together we know a lot."
- Hlín Helga Guðlaugsdóttir, DesignTalks curator  

DesignTalks addresses the challenges the world is facing and highlights the importance of design and architecture in societal and global change, with talks about impactful projects and inspiring conversations. Designers, architects and creative thinkers, international and local, provide insight into pressing issues with passion. Nothing is off limits.