Brazil is on a design roll, and Roberto Cocenza is riding its crest.
He’s director of BOOMSPDESIGN 2011, the international design conference scheduled for Aug. 31 – Sept. 2 in Sao Paolo, with an international lineup of the design world’s rock stars slated to participate. About 500 people will attend, spending two days at a local university and one day at a design center.
“We want to change people’s lives and make a better world,” the curator and cultural promoter said. “It’s about people getting twisted because we offer so many topics to think about. Last year, people came in as students of architecture, and by the end of the conference they were crying that they’d decided to become product designers.”
The conference is designed as a catalyst for Brazilian connections to the United States and international business communities. It’s viewed as vital to the global creative experience by bringing together designers and artists to showcase and discuss their work and passion.
“Our goal is to bring together different kinds of design, philosophies and work,” Cocenza said. “It’s a new business platform and an exchange of knowledge.”
Among the designers and artists who’ll be there are Studio Dror, Matali Crasset, Paul Clemence, Cat, Chad Oppenheim and Mount Fuji. FriendsWithYou and Green Provocateur will add the “collaborative art meets urban/street setting element” to the mix. Brazilians Brunete Fraccaroli, FGMF, Glauco Diogenes, Guilherme Torres, Sergio Matos, Rodrigo Almeida and Zoe Melo also will attend.
In addition, Luminaire, an innovative American design showroom and interactive design research center stimulating, are sponsors of the premiere of “Still Movement,” an experimental video project by Paul Clemence and Aksel Stasny. It will feature photos of famous architecture collaged into one video, with buildings by Sir Norman Foster, Coop Himmelbleau, Juergen Mayer H., Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Diller Scofido + Renfro and Oscar Niemeyer, set to a soundtrack by electronic audio artists Taylor Deupree and Stephan Mathieu.
For more on BOOMSPDESIGN2011, go to http://boomspdesign.com.br/2011/principal/?gtlang=en.