Held from 24 November to 3 December 2023 at PMQ, deTour, the most anticipated design festival in town is back. deTour 2023 is presented by PMQ and sponsored by Create Hong Kong of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. This 10-day grand design festival will present various programmes for the art and design communities both in and outside Hong Kong. These programmes include creative installations and exhibitions, workshops, design dialogues, movie screenings, guided tours, and many more.

10 years of deTour at PMQ
Started in 2014, PMQ’s deTour celebrates the 10th anniversary this year. A unique theme has been assigned to each edition of deTour to explore how design could solve social problems and improve our lives. To commemorate this journey, a 10-year retrospect exhibition will be featured in this year’s deign festival to look back on the highlighted exhibits and behind-the-scenes of the past decade of PMQ’s deTour. This part of the exhibition will be held during the same period as deTour 2023 Design Festival at PMQ and admission is free, as everyone is invited to witness the road to success of deTour, as the contribution of PMQ and deTour in pushing forward the development of the local design industry.

The theme of deTour 2023 – “New Know How” – the Interweaving of “Craft”, “Design” and “Technology”
Working around “New Know How” as the theme, deTour 2023 aims to pave the road to craft design future which takes off with appreciation of traditional craftsmanship. When working, craftsmen are laser focused, highly precise and people oriented, and these qualities are collectively deemed as the “spirit of craftsmanship”, which are also regarded as “Know How”. Curators of deTour 2023 stated that “this valuable artisanship ought to be applied to different industries. It, together with design thinking and advanced technology, will help take each industry to a new level. By achieving this, problems can be solved more effectively, and through analysing obstacles from a new angle and perhaps trying solutions with new materials and techniques, new creations that are more thoughtful might be possible – this is what we meant by ‘New Know How’.” Through this design festival, curators hope to bring the industries to re-appreciate traditional crafts from a new angle and make good use of “New Know How” in different sectors.

Three Exhibition Areas with 20 International and Local Works
The exhibition of deTour 2023 Design Festival is divided into three parts: International Collaboration, Feature Exhibitions and Selected Entries, which are curated under the five specific directions of New Value, Storytelling, Craft Enhancement, Innovation and Heritage. Scattered all over the PMQ premises, 20 design works from the Nethelands, Japan and local designers are open to the public for free appreciation. . In addition, over the 10 days of the design festival, there will be a fruitful programme of a total of 40 workshops, 12 design dialogues and sessions of documentary screening of “Food and Design”.

International Collaboration: Craft by Nature by Biobased Creations (The Netherlands)
deTour 2023’s International Collaboration has invited Biobased Creations from the Netherlands, which is a creative studio formed by a group of designers, researchers and artists who aim to encourage the use of biomaterials – also known as renewable eco resources – in daily lives, so as to evolve our world into a regenerative and circular one. Biobased Creations presents Craft by Nature which is an exhibit specially designed for deTour 2023. Shaped like a house, the exhibit allows visitors to find multiple designs made from biobased materials such as furniture, clothes, shoes and socks, and household items. All of these designs are eco-friendly, light in weight and with a minimalistic design, created by designers from Hong Kong and the Netherlands.

Outside the house in the garden, visitors can see the “originals” of the materials used in the designs, including common reed, silvergrass and shells, something that we are familiar with. Other than that, Biobased Creations will also display 40 biomaterials that can be applied in architecture and heat insulation, and visitors are welcome to hold and feel these materials and scan the QR code to instantly learn how these biomaterials are made. Craft by Nature is an innovative installation demonstrating how materials that are ignored or abandoned can be transformed into chic designs, and this allows us to rethink our relationship with the nature and invites us to take one more step forward to make our world better.