June 2025
Circolo del Design, Turin
In order to mark the opening of the exhibition Where to, from here? at the Circolo del Design, in Turin, two days of events proposed a series of encounters around the themes of the exhibition. The program started with an opening talk between political scientist Camila Vergara and exhibition curator Vera Sacchetti, and was followed, during the next day, by three different conversations that connected themes on display, inputs by exhibition participants, and invited contributions. The full program can be seen below.
13 June 18:00
Opening talk: Where to, from here?
Camila Vergara, Vera Sacchetti
Political scientist Camila Vergara joins Earthrise 25 curator Vera Sacchetti to discuss the framework of the exhibition Where to, from Here? The talk focuses on the ways our democratic systems are designed to exclude, rather than include; and explores how common people can have the political tools to stand up against oligarchy and stop ecological devastation.
14 June
Fragments of Democracy
Marco Ferrari and Matteo Bettini, in conversation with Vera Sacchetti
Our political systems are shaped to favour complexity and opacity. How can design make complex and intangible phenomena visible, using data visualization as a tool to stimulate a deeper reflection on the state of information? This has been a theme addressed in the ongoing investigation Fragments of Democracy, initiated by visual research agency Studio Folder. In this talk, Studio Folder co-founder Marco Ferrari and designer Matteo Bettini reflect on the project and its various dimensions, demonstrating how design can be a catalyst for dialogue, not only to tell the story, but also to protect democracy in critical moments.
Activism, Media and Politics
Silvia Sfligiotti, Noemi Biasetton, in conversation with Vera Sacchetti
Media shapes political narratives about power, rights, and the reality we are living in–today as strongly as in the dawn of political communication. While the recent rise in extremism and polarization has given a renewed power to propaganda, it is also fundamental to remember that the ways in which media permeates our lives can allow for acts of resistance and activism.
In this conversation, graphic designer and scholar Silvia Sfligiotti joins design researcher, writer and editor Noemi Biasetton to discuss media, design and politics, from the graphic language of countercultural movements, to the ways in which, today, politics is mixed with entertainment and communication through algorithms, memes and alternative realities.
Forms of Assembly
Space Popular, Gustav Kjaer Vad Nielsen, in conversation with Vera Sacchetti
In recent years, designers have been proposing new spatial configurations for decision-making and assembling, as well as platforms that allow us to use the building blocks of contemporary democracies to imagine them anew. In this talk, Space Popular and Gustav Kjaer Vad Nielsen reflect on their recent projects for assemblies, showing us that the future of democracy might not be something that we need to aspire to, but is instead already grounded among us.
