Design Heads 2026 : creation of tomorrow

Exhibition of the Design Prizes 2025

Opening : jeudi 29.01.26 à 18h00
Exhibition : du 29.01.26 au 01.02.26
Palexpo
Route François-Peyrot 30,
1218 Le Grand-Saconnex, Suisse,

More than thirty distinct visions, radically different mediums, and yet projects that still echo and resonate with one another. The HEAD Design Prizes 2025 reveal, in filigree, the urgency of a generation. How are these young designers to respond to a present for which they bear no responsibility? By asking concrete, sensitive questions rooted in the body, in spatiality, and in sensory experience, they work to reclaim narratives in order to make sense of the world, while also shaping practical ways forward.

Each year, HEAD – Genève is fortunate to rely on dedicated partners who support emerging talent in art and design through a range of prizes and grants, showcased in this exhibition. For its second edition, Design Heads: Creation of Tomorrow presents a guest exhibition featuring alums from the Product, Jewellery & Accessories Design department. Their contributions further these lines of inquiry and reflect a generation that is clear-sighted, committed, and firmly looking to the future.

PROGRAMME :
Thursday 29.01.2026 from 12:00PM to 7:30PM
Opening : 6:00PM - 7:30PM

Friday 30.01.2026 from12:00PM to 8:00PM
5:00 PM : Guided tour with the designers
6:00 PM : Lecture matali crasset, autrement by matali crasset, designer, in conversation with Alexandra Midal, historian and design theorist, professor at HEAD

Saturday 31.01.2026 drom 12:00PM to 7:00PM
2:00PM - 3:00PM : Workshop for children aged 8 - 12
3:00PM - 4:00PM : Workshop for children aged 8 - 12
3:00PM - 4:00PM : Guided tour with the designers
5:00PM - 6:00PM : PIAGET x HEAD Panel
Materiality and Intimacy: Rethinking Body-Worn Jewellery
With the participation of Stéphanie Sivrière, Creative Director of Jewellery and Watchmaking, PIAGET, David Roux-Fouillet, Head of the Product Design, Jewellery and Accessories programme, HEAD – Genève, Enzo Melchiorre, HEAD Alum, Senior Jewellery Designer, Dolce & Gabbana and Zoé Kiner-Wolf, Practitioner and PhD Theorist, Contemporary Jewellery and New Corporalities, 1970 to the Present
Moderation by Donatella Zappieri, Professor and Consultant in Jewellery and Fashion Strategy

Sunday 01.02.2026 from 12:00PM to 5:00PM
3:00PM - 4:00PM : Workshop for children aged 8 – 12
3:00PM - 4:00PM : Guided tour with the designers

Curation : Lara Granchamp and Joanna Haefeli
Scenography Design Heads : Pisoni-lab
Scenography Guest exhibition : François Dumas and Zoé Châtelier

Program

Lecture matali crasset, autrement by matali crasset, designer, in conversation with Alexandra Midal, historian and design theorist, professor at HEAD

30.01.26, 18:00

Matali Crasset, an internationally recognised French designer who has been teaching in the Master Design Installation (MADI) programme at HEAD – Genève for 15 years, will engage in a conversation with Alexandra Midal about her latest monograph Autrement (La Martinière). Together, they will explore how design, art and architecture can offer ways to think and act in a world undergoing profound transformation.

At the crossroads of artistic, ecological and social practice, matali crasset advocates for a design in action, extending from individual living spaces to collective forms of togetherness, from urban territories to rural ones, fostering dialogue and respectful interspecies coexistence for all living beings. Grounded in the observation of ecological and political realities, her work fuels a reflection on the utopias necessary to reinvent inclusive communal life. Once again, matali crasset demonstrates the power of creation placed at the service of the common good.

Panel PIAGET x HEAD : Matérialité et Intimité : Repenser le Bijou Corps-Porté

Stéphanie Sivrière, Creative Director of Jewellery and Watchmaking, PIAGET, David Roux-Fouillet, Head of the Product Design, Jewellery and Accessories programme, HEAD – Genève, Enzo Melchiorre, HEAD Alum, Senior Jewellery Designer, Dolce & Gabbana, Zoé Kiner-Wolf, Artist and PhD Theorist, Contemporary Jewellery and New Corporalities, 1970 to the Present Moderation by Donatella Zappieri, Professor and Consultant in Jewellery and Fashion Strategy