The Design Foundation of the Region of Valencia donates the exhibition «Designing the Air» to the Museum of the Fan of Aldaia on the first anniversary of the DANA

After travelling through València, Aldaia and New Delhi, the collection of designer fans that symbolizes the dialogue between design and the fan-making craft now finds its permanent home at the MUPA. Thus, the Design Foundation donates this iconic exhibition —which unites craftsmanship, design and technology to celebrate the fan as a cultural and innovative symbol— in an action that embodies the strength of culture, solidarity and the resilience of Valencian design; a tribute to the memory and the capacity for rebirth of Valencian craftsmanship.

Coinciding with the first anniversary of the DANA storm that devastated the ground floor of the Museum of the Fan of Aldaia (MUPA), the Design Foundation of the Region of Valencia has formalized the donation of the exhibition «Designing the Air» to the City Council of Aldaia. This exhibition, born within the framework of World Design Capital Valencia 2022, represents the union between design, craftsmanship and technology, and will now become part of the museum’s permanent collection.

The exhibition, curated and edited by Vicent Martínez together with craftsman Ángel Blay, brings together twenty pieces by internationally renowned designers who reinterpreted the traditional Valencian fan using contemporary materials, forms and technologies. Inma Bermúdez, Nieves Contreras, Pepe Gimeno, Nani Marquina, Ramón Úbeda and Pepa Reverter, Terence Woodgate, Yukari Taki, Carlos Tíscar, Eli Gutiérrez, Luisa Bocchietto, Antonio Serrano, Arnau & Reyna, María Arroyo, Ricard Ferrer, Sohei Arao & Sumiko Arao, and both Ángel Blay Villa and Vicent Martínez themselves, sign this collection of exceptional quality that demonstrates how the humanist dialogue between design and craftsmanship can reinvent the objects most deeply rooted in our culture.

The City Council of Aldaia highlights in the donation agreement that this is “an admirable gesture of solidarity and generosity by the Design Foundation of the Region of Valencia, aware of the seriousness of the situation of the MUPA due to the DANA, and with the aim of contributing to the restoration of the museum’s activities and cultural normality.” For his part, Francesc Martínez, director of the MUPA, stated: “«Designing the Air» represents an important addition to the museum, as it completes the MUPA’s historical museographic narrative with twenty avant-garde designer fans that dialogue with antique fans of various artistic styles such as Baroque, Neoclassicism and European Romanticism, the Restoration and First and Second French Empire styles, as well as fans from China and Japan from the 19th century and the traditional 19th-century Spanish Cristino and Isabelino fans, leading up to Modernism, Art Déco and the Spanish regionalist costumbrismo of the 20th century.”

A journey of wind and design

Following the success of the exhibition at the National Museum of Ceramics and Sumptuary Arts González Martí and at the Museum of the Fan of Aldaia in 2022, the show travelled to New Delhi in 2023 as part of Spain’s cultural representation at the G20 Summit in India. Now, a year after the flooding that destroyed the ground floor of the MUPA, «Designing the Air» returns home as a symbol of solidarity, resilience and love for heritage. In this way, the donation reflects the commitment of the Design Foundation to the cultural and heritage recovery of the municipality, as well as to promoting design as a driving force for innovation and the development of the Valencian fan-making sector.

“With this donation, we aim to contribute to the reopening of the MUPA and to highlight the importance of design as a tool for the future of our craftsmanship,” explained Xavi Calvo, Director of the Design Foundation of the Region of Valencia. “Aldaia is synonymous with tradition, talent and craftsmanship, and «Designing the Air» represents precisely that: the dialogue between past, present and future.”

The Museum of the Fan of Aldaia, recognised as a Permanent Museographic Collection of the Region of Valencia and declared an Intangible Asset of Local Relevance for fan-making craftsmanship, as well as an Artisan Space of the Region of Valencia, will now host this exhibition under the title «Designing the Air, a proposal for the future», in view of its reopening once the comprehensive restoration works on the building are completed.

With this action, the Design Foundation closes the cycle of a project that was born in València and, after travelling the world, returns to Aldaia to inspire new generations of artisans and designers.

Art direction and photography: Juan Martínez