After 18 years and 9 editions, one of them in Amsterdam (2008) and the last one including Lisbon, Porto and Matosinhos, 2017 will be the final year of this event.

During its 9 editions, the EXD Biennale received a total of 1.135.107 visitors, averaging 116.123 per edition. It invited 1.833 national and international participants, from 48 countries, producing completely original projects.

To celebrate the end of the Biennale – as well as all those who participated in its programme, those who worked to make it possible, and its audience – Experimenta will produce EXD’17, its last edition, with a special format which will be inaugurated during the weekend of the 29th and 30th of September, with a programme that will be announced to the press this coming June.

The EXD Biennale catapulted Lisbon and Portugal into the circuit of great international cultural events, standing as a global platform that was dynamic and bold, promoting contemporary culture through debate, reflection and the sharing of knowledge.

Standing as a dynamic and bold international platform that promoted contemporary culture through discussion and reflection, EXD organized and presented original projects, concepts and ideas through different formats: conferences, projections, exhibitions, urban interventions, workshops and debates.

The main vector of the Biennale was design in its broadest sense, encompassing not only the multiple strands of product creation but also design as an operative discipline and work methodology. The second vector was architecture in its multiple forms and levels. Assuming project culture as a central axis of an integrating perspective, the Biennale presented contents in the areas of industrial design, architecture, communication design, film, set design, photography, multimedia, sound design, light design, video and the visual arts.

EXD fostered interchanges, intersections and stimuli within the creative and academic community, having operated a network of national and international collaborations and co-productions with cultural agents and institutions, teaching establishments, companies and theorists.

The Biennale acted as a pillar for the diffusion of emerging talent and vanguard creative practices, and was in permanent transformation and growth, flexible, and receptive to new contributions and challenges. Every two years, it activated a multifaceted dynamic that spread throughout the urban territory of the city where it took place, programming less known edified spaces, involving speakers from different areas and stimulating the rediscovery of the city through strategized visitation routes connected to the organized events.

Promoting ideas and individuals, the programme of the Biennale held the objective of transmitting contents and incentive to specialized audiences and the general public alike, disseminating information and stimulating critical debate. Committed to the democratization of knowledge, the dissemination of information and the updating of competencies, EXD defended the role of culture as a transversal vector of development.

The Experimenta association will continue its activity and work in the area of cultural, social and economic research, with a foundation based on the principles of the disciplines of design, architecture and art in general. This work will be implemented with a special focus on the national context, structured on global actions and perspectives.