This year the DesignTO thematic exhibition, Future Retrospectives, celebrates DesignTO’s 10th anniversary by looking to both the future and the past. At this exciting moment in DesignTO’s history Future Retrospectives asks “what will the future look like, and how did we get there?”

Instead of marking this anniversary with a traditional retrospective exhibit, Future Retrospectives explores how the past can inform the future, how the future can inform the present and how all three are interconnected. With DesignTO’s 10th anniversary falling in the year 2020, Future Retrospectives is also connected to seeing 20/20, touching on themes of vision and foresight.

Curated through an open call Future Retrospectives features work from 11 Canadian and international artists and designers including Graysha Audren, Mia Cinelli, Hannah Claus, Cassandra Ferguson, Tsēmā Igharas, Andreas Krätschmer, SHATTERED MOON ALLIANCE, Studio Björn Steinar, Adhavan Sundaramurthy, Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart, and Jessica Thalmann. This multidisciplinary exhibit features work in a variety of mediums including typography, photography, sculpture, textiles, multimedia installation, furniture and architecture all unified by a shared methodology. Creative acts are inherently future-oriented and Future Retrospectives asks both the artist and the viewer to contemplate how the past can help us understand the future. 

For artist Mia Cinelli, who has created a series of new letterforms designed to supplement existing typefaces, the connection is clear. “Our present actions become the past, but they also become what’s next … The future doesn’t just arrive one day perfectly formed; it’s not magic, it’s planning.”

Future Retrospectives runs throughout Festival week and until March 29, 2020. Join us for the reception on Friday, January 24, from 7pm to 10pm at the Harbourfront Centre.