This second Conference explores how product designers can drive economic growth. Boasting a heavyweight speaker line–up equal to last year’s acclaimed programme, inspiration is drawn from diverse thinkers and academics in the field of design and innovation, while the big economic questions of growth and re–industrialisation are linked with product design and strategy. Sessions are specifically developed to address the barriers that exist between consultancies and in–house design teams as well as functions like engineering and marketing. Insight is delivered via genuine brand case studies, debates, pecha kucha sessions and panel discussions.

Hans–Peter Feldmann rose to prominence in the early 1970s, earning worldwide acclaim for his expansive and encyclopaedic photographic series. Often presented in the form of books, posters, postcards and gallery installations, these collections link Feldmann’s life–long fascination with collecting to his practice as an archivist of visual culture. His exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery will be his first solo presentation in a UK public gallery since winning the 2010 Hugo Boss Prize. Feldmann’s work has been widely exhibited in major international museums, as well as at Documenta and the Venice Biennale.

In this retrospective exhibition of the iconic French shoe designer Christian Louboutin, twenty years of design and inspiration are showcased, revealing the artistry and theatricality of his shoes, from stilettos to lace–up boots, studded sneakers and bejewelled pumps, and the style, glamour, power, femininity and elegance they are claimed to evoke. Each stage of Louboutin’s design process is explored, showing exactly how a shoe is constructed, from the initial drawing and first prototype through to production in the factory.

Russia’s long and important photographic history is known primarily through the famous avant–garde period of Constructivism in the 1920s and early 30s, with names such as Aleksander Rodchenko and El Lissitzky. But very little is known about the avant–garde photography that continued after World War II in the shadow of socialist realism. This largely unknown work provides the link to the creative photography that emerged under Perestroika in the 1980s and 90s and continues to this day. FOTOFEST will showcase contemporary photo– related art and video in Russia along with important examples of photographic art from the late 1950s to the present.

Buenos Aires Moda is a one– of–a–kind exhibition dedicated to the distribution of wholesale fashion. Each season, the leading brands in the apparel and accessories segments present their collections to buyers, press, and visitors arriving from elsewhere in the country and the world. The looks, the colours, and the must–haves of the season are
concisely presented in respect to the market, thus facilitating the task of selection and purchase, and providing a truly differentiated service to buyers.

Presented are more than 100 dry prints generated from Polaroid photographs, selected in close cooperation with the artist himself prior to his death in 2011. Snapping away with his Polaroid camera since his student days, the artist didn’t make available to the public his photographic material until the 1990s. The subject matter varies considerably... from still–life images of flowers and brushes, snapshots of his studio and museum interiors, details of
his paintings, over to views of ancient temples and atmospheric landscapes, these ethereal and delicate images revealing the themes that have nourished Twombly’s paintings, drawings, sculptures and graphic art.

Presenting more than 170 photographs, this retrospective survey traces the American artist’s career from the mid 1970s to the present. Highlighted are in-depth presentations of her key series, including the groundbreaking
‘Untitled Film Stills’, the blackand- white pictures that feature Sherman in stereotypical female roles inspired by 1950s and 60s Hollywood, film noir, and European art-house cinema; her ornate history portraits, in which she poses as aristocrat, clergyman, and milkmaid, in the manner of old master paintings; and her larger-than-life society portraits that address the experience and representation of ageing in the context of the contemporary obsession with youth and status.

The 2012 deCordova Biennial is a survey exhibition focused on emphasising the quality and variety of work rather than on any single or overarching theme. Highlighting artists from across New England, the exhibition displays a diverse range of approaches to media and content. The exhibition is co-curated by deCordova curator Dina Deitsch
and independent curator and former owner/director of the Judi Rotenberg Gallery in Boston, Abigail Ross Goodman. This version of the Biennial features 23 artists and collaborative projects and occupies the entire museum and beyond— reaching into the park, Boston, and nearby communities through several
public, off-site projects.

Grimonprez’s video work manoeuvres gracefully between art and cinema, documentary and fiction, theory and practice. In a world inundated with mass (re) produced images, the artist suggests new narrative structures. His work is based on an archaeology of contemporary media, revealing - and subverting - the role moving images play in the construction of our personal and political histories, our fears and desires, and the way we look at ourselves and see the world. Using documentary footage, found footage, historical archives, private home videos, news footage, commercials, music videos and clips from Hollywood movies, Grimonprez tries, in his way, to make sense of the havoc that history wreaks.

Envisioning Buildings questions the way in which the status of architecture is established by its representation in both high and popular art. It would seem that the artists exhibited do not stand on ceremony. Instead, they critically assess the forces that elevated the importance of their building while daring to depict their shortcomings. However, included are also romantic and reinforcing photographs that actually let the depicted buildings shine. Structured into eight chapters, the exhibition covers a broad range of artistic approaches and issues. Architecture, being a special area of applied art, yields different impressions and insights when viewed through the lens of contemporary art photography.