Here / Now was the title of Operæ 2015, the Turin-based Independent Design Festival run for 8 editions, till the closing one of 2017.
For the first time, in 2015 a curator has been asked to curate the event.
The juxtaposition of the works of the thirty or so selected exhibitors who inhabited the rooms of Palazzo Cavour brought to light a cultural climate that was the result of the progressive interest aimed at understanding phenomenal reality, and focused on design practices, including audience participations, performances and workshops.
The purpose of Operæ 2015 as a festival had not been the search for a new meaning of things and design, goods and production. On the contrary, the aim was to reconsider and investigate a renewed design practice no longer represented by industrial design but directed toward the observation of matter and its manifestations.

Here / Now was a search for innovative points of view on the notion of ontological observation understood as a metaphor for the self-production of the world.
The overall theme of this edition included two broad categories, Artifice/Nature and Me/We – two tangents that identified parallel and ongoing transitions in design practice, felt to be a form of an integral liberalism that encourages human beings to build a closer relationship with others, human and other-than-human agents.
The selected projects were based on the use of natural processes and their manipulation to construct a landscape in which the Human-Nature relationship meant seeking a new qualitative condition of production.
The entire event was not simply an exhibition, festival, thematic show or fair. it was, above all, an opportunity to experiment with a new model of a real platform where – through thematic and curatorial extension – research, experimentation and individual entrepreneurship could emerge and merge into a space dedicated to collective debate, sharing and collaboration.
In addition to the main exhibition, the 2015 edition of Operae featured the exhibition “Piemonte Handmade,” which presented projects born from a new collaboration between twelve artisans from Piedmont and twelve Italian designers.

Operæ: Sara Fortunati, Paola Zini
Curator: Angela Rui
Assistant curator: Anna Paola Buonanno
Production manager: Benedetta Lenzi
Visual identity: undesign
Exhibition design: /LAM
Photo credits: Pepe Fotografia

Exhibitiors: Davide Aquini, Federico Peri, Gum Design, Zp studio, Lanificio Leo, Maddalena Selvini, Portego, Camp Design Gallery, Josefina Munoz, Laura Couto Rosado, Laura Daza, Marco Guazzini, Ingrid Hulskamp, Nina Van Bart, Daan Spanjers, Aliki Van der Kruijs, Noman, Cosmo, Floor Nijdern, Studio Passalacqua, Teresa Van Dongen, Tijmen Smeulders, Plusdesign gallery, Omer Polak, Gio Minelli, Olivier Van Herpt, Sander Wassink, Jenia, Peralia, Luuk Van Den Broek.

Piemonte Handmade: Antonio Aricò con Sohelia Dilfanian, Atelier Biagetti con Antica Fabbrica Passamanerie Massia Vittorio 1843, Blumerandfriends con ECAT Orologi e Campane, Carlo Contin con Piccola Falegnameria, Chiara Onida con Alta Moda Anna Giroli, Federico Floriani con Verbano Velluti, Giulio Iacchetti con Alberto Tallone Editore, JVLT con Roberto Figurelli, Paolo Ulian con Reale Restauri, Sebastiano Tonelli con Bottega Fagnola, Zanellato/Bortotto con Andrea Besana, Zaven con Recycled Stones