MIDA (made in democratic Africa) takes its name from the Frigia emperor who used to convert to gold everything he would touch. We quoted this anecdote to refer to the power of design – when it is not just veneer or look – to change the way we look at things, to convert prejudices and to let things surprise us again. In different ways, and not only under the design point of view, Italy and South Africa are living analogous situations. The burden of their histories for example, the question of integration, and of course the bias over their national expression: Italy on one side seems to have consumed all its creative power celebrated in the last century; South Africa, on the other side, gives the impression to be in a substantial moment of bargaining with its identity. This is the reason why I thought of letting these two cultures meet each other and work on the same themes, where Italian designers can bring their fresh new contributions and South Africans can tell their multiple visions and try together to find new meanings of originality, nationality, diversity and exchange in terms of design.
The trans-disciplinary workshop took place in the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) Cape Town Campus from 19 to 23 May 2014, and it will end with a double exhibition, with one chapter in Cape Town, and one in Milan next autumn.