In celebration of the 50th anniversary of UQAM’s School of design, the Centre de design is presenting an exhibition that aims to resonate with a public curious to discover the design milieu.
The exhibition, called Parcours, will present the trajectories of fifty graduates from the School of Design’s six academic programs, and include their first student works to their most recent ones.
All generations that have passed through the school since 1974 are represented in this exhibition. A total of five decades of creative archives have also been searched to put a spotlight on the evolution and interconnectivity of the design disciplines taught at the school. These include graphic design, industrial design, architecture and urban design, fashion design, transportation design, event design, and modern patrimonial studies.
Through this exhibition, the public will be able to explore the diversity of design practices as well as the importance of design in our everyday lives.
“Parcours explores the past, confronts the present, and imagines the future. Our team took on the challenge of creating an archeology of the school by uncovering unique student projects and artifacts,” said Patrick Evans, director of the Centre de design and co-curator of the exhibition. “It’s a must-see exhibition to understand how design has accompanied the social, environmental, and technological transformations of the last fifty years.”
Those featured in the exhibition include Alain Carle, of Atelier Carle; Ying Gao, fashion designer and professor at the School of design; Marie-Josée Lacroix, the City of Montreal’s first design commissioner; Philippe Lamarre, founder of Urbania; Denis Lapointe, head of design at Bombardier Recreational Products; Catherine Lebrun, director of product design at lululemon; and Melissa Mongiat, co-founder of design studio Daily tous les jours.
A “tribute wall” featured in the exhibition aims to celebrate the contributions of almost 700 faculty members and employees of the School of design. Anecdotes and artifact descriptions reveal key moments from the school’s history.
Additionally, the exhibition evokes the memory of various important members of the teaching staff who left their mark on the careers of a large number of graduates. A library is also available to the public. More than 200 works that showcase the excellence of the research carried out at the school can be consulted on site and are made accessible in large part through collaboration with the UQAM Library Service and donations from professors.
The exhibition will take place from September 12 to November 10, 2024.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary milestone, the École de design is also organizing the colloquium MUTATIONS: Où va le design? from September 18 to 20, 2024. Experts from Montreal and beyond will share their visions for the future of design from four themes which inlude social commitment, environment, (de)materiality, and artificial intelligence. Emanuele Quinz, PhD in aesthetics, art science and technology, art and design historian and lecturer at Université Paris 8, will kick off the symposium with an opening lecture.