From Jan 24 to Jan 25
From Saturday 24 to Sunday 25 January 2026, the design research institute
Civic City, founded by Ruedi and Vera Baur, will organise a
24-hour broadcast across the globe on the theme of
democracy.
The event will be hosted by Ruedi Baur from the Cité du Design, with a live link to Frankfurt, the 2026 World Design Capital.
Preceded
by a screening of short films produced by students from art
and design schools, the programme will be broadcast live throughout the weekend
on the channel youtube.com/@civic-city, as well as on demand.
The
Cité du Design will open the studio doors to the public on Saturday 24 January from 10am to 6pm in the auditorium of the Ésad Saint-Étienne, for an
exceptional live experience.
Free admission, subject to availability.
General programme and invitation to the Cité du Design
Discussions will mainly be held in French, English, German and Spanish, with automatic translation into English.
24 January 2026 / Auditorium of the École supérieure d’art et de design (Ésad) in Saint-Étienne
9:30 am: doors open
10 am-1 pm: "1,000 declarations on democracies", film screening
Screening
of 45 films, each approximately 3 minutes long, created by
students from a dozen art and design schools around the world (France, Germany, Italy, India...), expressing their opinions on
democracy and suggesting improvements.
These films were selected by the students from the various schools themselves.
The students from Ésad Saint-Étienne who created the
films will engage in a live discussion with students from other schools.
1pm-2pm: buffet
2pm-6pm: "Re-design democracies" programme broadcast live
The programme "Re-Design Democracies" will be broadcast for 24 hours from two studios, set up at the Cité du design and the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in
Frankfurt.
It will be open to the public at the Cité du design from 2pm to 6pm. Designer Ruedi Baur will welcome several guests to the Cité du Design, and will be joined in Frankfurt by sociologist and anthropologist Vera Baur and philosopher Christopher Dell.
In total, 96 dialogues with guest speakers will be held over the course of 24 hours, at a rate of 15 minutes per speech, following the different time zones. From the concept of democracy to the reality of today’s democratic emergencies, these exchanges will take us on a journey around the world, exploring historical and contemporary notions of democracy and proposals for rethinking it.
Ruedi Baur’s guests in Saint-Étienne:
• Éric Jourdan, Director of EPCC Cité du design - Ésad Saint-Étienne
• Aurélie Voltz, Director of the Musée d’art moderne et contemporain Saint-Étienne Métropole
• Paulin Ismard, historian
• Xavier de Jarcy, journalist
• Capucine Legelle, journalist and activist, accompanied by Anna Tabary Mazella and Fatiha Tali
6pm-7.30pm: buffet
Until 25 January 2026 - 2pm
Live broadcast of ‘Re-design democracies’ on youtube.com/@civic-city
The programme will continue to be broadcast from the two studios in Frankfurt and Saint-Étienne, with live streaming on YouTube.
This event is part of the programme for Frankfurt RheinMain, World Design Capital 2026 and Ruedi and Vera Baur’s residency "Civic City at the Cité du Design", of which it is the first public expression. It is also the 9th edition of the programme "24 Hours of Conversation Around the World" produced by Civic City.
It demonstrates the role of design as a critical methodology and
lever for transformation, offering new frameworks for questioning contemporary issues and imagining solutions and alternatives. Its simultaneous organisation
at the Cité du Design and in Frankfurt, World Design Capital
2026, confirms the central place of Saint-Étienne, the only UNESCO Creative City of Design in France, within the international design ecosystem.
Detailed programme (to come)
Founded in 2011 by designer Ruedi Baur and sociologist-anthropologist Vera Baur, Civic City is an independent institute for critical design research. It works with an international, cross-disciplinary network of creators who imagine and conceptualise a better world. Civic City initiates and develops research projects on the uses of public space in urban situations, as well as actions and projects driven by a social and civic vision of design.
Civic City
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