According to curators Angela Rui and Matilde Losi, time has become one of the most contested elements of contemporary life. It is fragmented, measured, and converted into a productive unit, turning into a dimension that slips away just as we attempt to control it.
This perspective informs TIME IS PRESENT. Designing the Common, the fourth edition of the Porto Design Biennale, which will take place from October to December 2025 in the cities of Porto and Matosinhos.
The Biennale invites a shift in how we consider time, not only as a linear measure, but as a collective condition. Drawing on the Greek distinction between Chronos and Kairos, measurable time and qualitative time, Rui and Losi challenge the dominance of a quantitative understanding. In doing so, they bring attention to forms of experience often pushed to the margins: care, play, reflection, and conviviality.
This approach takes shape through a series of projects and activities that aim to restore the present as a generative space. In this context, design is not positioned as a functional or aesthetic response, but as a systemic and participatory practice, one that can foster new forms of living together and imagine alternative ways of inhabiting time and space.
Open Call: Designing the Common
Within this context, an international open call is launched for designers, collectives, studios, researchers, and practitioners interested in taking part in the main exhibition of the Porto Design Biennale, to be held at Casa do Design in Matosinhos.
The curators invite proposals that consider time as a shared condition and a living material of design practice—capable of generating forms of presence, connection, and belonging. The goal is to explore how design can help reframe the relationship between individuals, institutions, resources, and environments, starting from the everyday and its inherent vulnerabilities.
The open call welcomes proposals that engage the present in a concrete, sensitive, and situated way. Priority will be given to projects developed through collaborative processes and involving communities, associations, civic networks, or local contexts. Objects, spaces, systems, tools, or relational practices should foster enduring forms of cohabitation and care.
The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2025, at 11:59 PM (Portuguese time). Full details are available on the official Biennale website.
PORTO DESIGN BIENNALE
Where: Porto and Matosinhos, Portugal
When: October 2025 to March 2026
Theme: TIME IS PRESENT. Designing the Common
Curators: Angela Rui (General Curator), Matilde Losi (Assistant Curator), Eleonora Fedi (Local Curator), Nina Paim (Public Programme), Andreia Faria (Editorial Curator)
Website: portodesignbiennale.pt
