PDP XIII: DO YOU WANT TO SHIFT WITH US?

The XIII PDP Conference is shifting in a new direction. Join us during the first week of October in Novi Sad, Serbia, for talks, workshops, exhibitions, a panel discussion, as we discuss about the new normal.

This year, PDP is shifting into a new direction, the direction of the theme SHIFT. It is intended to encourage rationalization of change, turnover, evolution, development and motion.

A genesis of something new need not imply a radical cancellation of what was before, but rather a gradual, non-linear transition from one phase to the next, from one shape to the next. The SHIFT theme encourages widening of our inner freedoms so that we are not bound to be where we had previously been, nor where we are thinking we are heading, but to understand and acknowledge a fluid nature of a transformation.

Sometimes we might shift vertically, sometimes horizontally. Sometimes, a shift might occur overnight, diagonally. What matters is the journey, the movement that occurs spirally, linearly, zigzagged, circularly, chaotically.

We would like to invite you to embrace the new, not for merely being new but because it might help us be better and to better the world around us. We would like to invite you to rationalize the changes that are occurring within us and all around us, as well as initializing the ones that may contribute to painting a somewhat different portrait of a society – more responsible, conscious, compassionate.

We would all like to forget the last year, to skip it in our memories and suppress it deeply for not being “normal”. However, what if those kinds of (ab)normal times were actually required to move us from the old (ab)normalcy?

This year, the PDP Conference is simultaneously following the ReCulture project, which is why a lot of what will take place at the Conference is in line with the aims of the project. Moreover, the project partners, mentors, and the young designers involved in ReCulture are coming together in order to shift PDP (and its audience) in a new direction.

The XIII PDP Conference will take place during the first week of October 2021 at SPENS, Novi Sad, Serbia, featuring talks, workshops, exhibitions, a panel discussion, and more. For more information, including the program, speakers and timetable, visit the PDP website. Let’s SHIFT again, like we did last year.