Water is everywhere; it shapes everything, it is vital, and life would not be possible without it. It can take many forms, manifesting them simultaneously. It is a powerful lens through which we think about the world and the adaptability of design to the fast and ceaseless changes that have been taking place in “reality”, where the world we know is disintegrating and we still don't know how the next one will look like. 

Our understanding of water is generally superficial and reductive: we perceive it, above all, as a resource, an imprisoned liquid surface, separated from the remaining matter. This restricts the way we relate to it. The water demand is expected to outstrip supply by 40%, by 2030. How can we preserve what we still don't know quite well? In this edition of Porto Design Biennale, we propose a transdisciplinary laboratory platform dedicated to observation, reflection, creativity, and learning, which will act simultaneously in the visible and invisible, organic and inorganic, and ephemeral spectra of water. This platform-laboratory is “hydrated” through six proposals: 

•           Promethean Beasts: Shapes of the human 
•           Magic Reality: Living with the un/known 
•           Bodies of Water: Where water becomes common — vegetable matter, meat, mineral
•           Dynamic Landscapes: Dancing margins, borders that don't exist
•           Flying Rivers: Rethinking the sources, uses, and representations of water 
•           Affective Geologies: The living history of a recipe 

 From the interconnection between these six proposals, we aim to develop and present strategies that contribute to acknowledge, repair, restore and cogitate new relationships with the world. In addition to designing better and more efficient uses of water, we must create models of alternative, symbiotic cohabitation between humans and more-than-humans, a beneficial and sustainable relationality for all. Cooperative and ecological relations that embrace the various spectres of reality and water, in their various forms and places. Instead of the same words and stories, we seek to “hydrate” with new words, bring to light other narratives, talk to strangers, and sow ideas. 

From the water, we wish to nurture a new lexicon that expands our relational field with the world. Learning from water reveals the complex and intricate web of interdependencies that connects us to the planet as a whole.

Fernando Brízio

Fernando Brízio was born in Angola, and studied Design in Lisbon, where he currently lives and works. He has developed products for the industry sector, limited series, exhibitions, scenarios and spaces for companies and organisations like Droog Design, Amorim Cork, Experimenta Design, Nike, Adidas, Authentics, Fábrica Bordallo Pinheiro, Il Coccio, Arena Ensemble, O Som e a Fúria, Museu de Serralves, Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Galerie Kreo, etc. His work has been exhibited and published internationally, and is sometimes developed independently, blurring disciplinary boundaries. Brízio has taught at ESAD.CR since 1999, where he planned and coordinated several courses in the domains of product and space design. He was a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts Lisbon-UL and a visiting professor at several institutions, like ECAL — École Cantonale d'Art in Lausanne, HFG — Karlsruhe University of Art Design and FCSH of the New University of Lisbon. He has participated in juries and lectures in Portugal and abroad. He has curated several projects and exhibitions, including SCool Ibérica and Paradisaea Lux Frágil 20 anos. His works are part of the permanent collection of MUDE — Museu DO Design e da Moda de Lisboa, and IMA — Museu de Arte de Indianapolis, among other collections. Currently, and in addition to his ongoing projects, Fernando Brízio is a researcher at Lida — Laboratory in Design and Arts of the Polytechnic of Leiria and at the College of Arts of the University of Coimbra.