Basel, Switzerland – June 17 – 19, 2014 – Art Basel isn’t just about walking around a showroom and viewing countless exhibits, it’s all about completely immersing oneself in the entire world of art and design. This year one of the highlights of Design Miami/’s trip to Basel was their talks program which presents the design world’s most compelling current topics in design. The series brings together the designers, architects, artists and critics who are actively influencing design discourse and production. The Talks offer insight into what drives creative output, criticism and the market. Starting on Tuesday afternoon, the series continued through Thursday evening and we were on hand to catch all the action from the six intriguing discussions.

‘Prologue’ by Fredrikson Stallard for Swarovski

Kicking off the 2014 Design Miami/ Basel 2014 Talks series was a thought provoking conversation between Jana Scholze, Curator of Contemporary Furniture and Product Design at the Victoria and Albert Museum, with Nadja Swarovski, Member of the Swarovski Executive Board, and designer Fredrikson Stallard.

Nadja Swarovski, Ian Stallard, Patrick Fredrickson, & Jana Scholze

Nadja Swarovski, Ian Stallard, Patrick Fredrickson, & Jana Scholze

Nadja Swarovski, Ian Stallard, & Patrick Fredrickson

Nadja Swarovski, Ian Stallard, Patrick Fredrickson, & Jana Scholze

Fiber and Textile Design: Rock, Sky and the Interim Space

Tuesday’s Talks series ended with a fabulous discussion between Artist Sheila Hicks and Sjarel Ex, Director of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen about the various aspects fiber and textile design.

Sheila Hicks & Sjarel Ex

Sheila Hicks

Sheila Hicks & Sjarel Ex

Fear of Missing Out: Design, Identity and the Politics of Information

The Design Miami/ Basel Talk series picked back up on Wednesday afternoon with Space Caviar in discussion with Amsterdam-based design research studio Metahaven and man of many talents Ben Vickers. Throughout the talk the group chatted about an array of topics as well as Space Caviar’s ‘FOMObile’ correspondence at Art Basel.

 Tamar Shafrir, Simone Niquille, Joseph Grima, & Ben Vickers

 Tamar Shafrir, Simone Niquille, Joseph Grima, Ben Vickers, & Vinca Kruk

 Tamar Shafrir, Simone Niquille, Joseph Grima, & Ben Vickers

Simone Niquille, Joseph Grima, & Ben Vickers

The Design Museum of the Future

The closing talk of Wednesday was between Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum London, Mateo Kries, Director of the Vitra Design Museum, and Caroline Roux. The trio chatted away about the future of design in the museums and all the exciting features we can expect to come.

Deyan Sudjic, Mateo Kries, & Caroline Roux

Deyan Sudjic & Mateo Kries

Deyan Sudjic, Mateo Kries, & Caroline Roux

New Technologies, Human Experiences, and Ethics: Discussing Design’s Future

The last day of the Design Miami/ Basel Talks series began with commission recipient Jamie Zigelbaum and designer Yves Béhar in conversation with Matthew Israel, Director of The Art Genome Project, Artsy. Here they spent time discussing the future of design with consideration of how so many various factors go into the evolution of design.

Yves Béhar, Jamie Zigelbaum, & Matthew Israelv 

Jamie Zigelbaum

Yves Béhar

 Yves Béhar, Jamie Zigelbaum, & Matthew Israelv

Collecting Radical Design: a Spirit for the Unconventional

The final discussion of the Design Miami/ Basel Talks series concluded with a conversation between Dennis Freedman, Creative Director of Barneys New York and Curator of Design At Large, with Rodman Primack, Executive Director of Design Miami/. This was a perfect finale to this years talks program as Primack and Freedman dove into an intense chat about their interest in wildly unique designs and collector pieces.

Rodman Primack & Dennis Freedman

Rodman Primack

Dennis Freedman

Rodman Primack & Dennis Freedman