[exhibition booklet]

Writing from his prison cell circa 1930, the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci described the institutional crisis of his time as a political hiatus. “The old (system) is dying and the new cannot be born”. In this interregnum, Gramsci added “a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” The sentence was later rendered into English as: “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters”. This rather loose translation became wildly popular in the aftermath of Brexit and Donald Trump’s US election victory because it seems to perfectly capture the present condition. The aim of the present conference is to examine the old monsters haunting the new millennium, and to ask whether the multitude of eerie creatures feasting on Capital’s decaying flesh appeared by accident or by design.

Opening: 23.09.2019, 06:00—09:00 pm 06:00 pm Introducion by Ana Teixeira Pinto, José Bártolo 06h20 pm Earth Evidence Lecture by Susan Schuppli 07:00 pm: Sad by Design: On Platform Nihilism, presentation by Geert Lovink 08:00 pm: XR and Affect: Designing Emphatic Realities, performance by Cibelle Cavalli Bastos

Conference: 24.09.2019, 02:00—08:00 pm 02:00 pm Dystopian Designs: Infrastructural Violence Introduction by Ana Teixeira Pinto 02:20 pm 77 square meters Lecture by Eyal Weizman 03:00 pm  The NSU tribunal Talk by Natascha Sadr Haghighian 03:40 pm The Global Shelter Imaginary Talk by Andrew Herscher 04:20 pm Panel discussion with Eyal Weizman, Natascha Sadr Haghighian and Andrew Herscher Break 05:20 pm Crapularity Design Talk by Florian Cramer 06:00 pm Made in China/ Designed in California/ Criticized in Europe Talk by Geert Lovink 06:40 pm Contra-Internet Lecture Performance by Zach Blas 07:20 pm Panel Discussion with Florian Cramer, Geert Lovink and Zach Blas

Tickets Free entry performances are subject to room capacity. You may collect your ticket between September 3 and 1 hour before the event at Porto Design Biennale Headquarters or at Teatro Rivoli ticket office. To pre-book your seat send an email to info@portodesignbiennale.pt.