The Mediterranean Manifesto is a collective exhibition featured in the Madrid Design Festival 2026 that offers a sensory, material, and environmental journey through the memory of the Mediterranean. Curated by Mariona Rubio and co-produced with Cosentino, the exhibition brings together artists, designers, and craftspeople who combine new ideas with traditional crafts to reimagine the Mediterranean language. The result is a major focus on re-interpreting ceramics, glass, basketry, carpentry, textiles, and ancestral techniques with modern innovations.
The exhibition highlights a new post-industrial generation that sees design as a cultural expression, not just a product to sell. These creators rely on craftsmanship, self-made work, and material experimentation to encounter today’s fast socio-economic model that ignores the environment. Instead of mass production, they value unique pieces, handmade beauty, and thoughtful simplicity. Each piece is a statement: a way of relating to nature based on symbiosis rather than exploitation.
The exhibition space is designed as a dream-like, sensory setting. It uses sand, sheer curtains, and stone-like platforms to make the Mediterranean feel like a symbolic desert. This design helps visitors see the artworks in a deeper, more metaphorical way. The space reminds people of the Mediterranean’s past while also warning about its future.
The exhibition brings together works by Adrián Salvador Candela, Andrea Sender, Anne-Laure Cano, Canoa Lab, Carol Fleischman, Casa Antillón, Emilie Lisi, Esto Estudio, Fango, Francesca Piñol Torrent, Justine Menard, Los Objetos Decorativos, Lucas Muñoz Muñoz, Luna Paiva, Malva Office, María Ortega, Meritxell Duran, Mulier Studio, Nazara Lázaro, Otra Objects, Pablo Octavio, Poof Poof, Kilzi, Sara Regal, Sashaxsasha, Sietes y Alex Bellotti, Sofia Karnukaeva, Taller Candela for El Quadrado, Todomuta, Tossuda Studio, Valeria Vasi, Worn Studio, Six Dots Design, Xavier Mañosa, and Yoyo Balagué.
Mariona Rubio Sabatés is the lead curator who shaped the exhibition’s focus on “neo-artisanship” and a post-industrial paradigm shift, while Cosentino, being the main collaborator and co-producer, provided structural and material elements like Dekton Albarium for the exhibition’s landscape. Valeria Vasi is another notable name known for blurring boundaries between design and sculpture. Her minimalist design style is clearly visible in the Constellation chair, where its sculptural design features fine lines and celestial-inspired forms.
Lucas Muñoz, known for experimenting with different materials, will present its unique B.A.R.E. Series “Double” Table Lamp at the event, which is made from upcycled materials. Likewise, Sara Regal showcases the potential of combining design and the textile industry with Sildo seats made from upcycled materials, while CasaAntillon’s custom nesting metal table plays with material and form expressions. Other key highlights include the Wool Disguise Series chair, Candelabro Route, Curtain Lamp, Brown Ceramic Lamp, and a metal magazine rack.
Many creators in the exhibition, inspired by Romanticism and the Arts & Crafts movement, suggest a more mindful way of living. They see slowing down, caring, and working by hand as meaningful and powerful acts. Their self-made designs promote a respectful relationship with nature, based on awareness and care rather than exploitation.
Mediterranean Manifesto exhibition explores the close relationship between objects, space, and people. It presents new ways of understanding design, new forms of functionality, and different uses of materials.
As a visitor, you would need to pause, observe, and rebuild your connection with matter, landscape, and time that has gone, as well as that which is coming. You have to see the objects with a lens of awareness and respect while keeping in mind the overall Mediterranean journey for a sustainable and community-oriented future.
Via: MDF
Special thanks to Mariona Rubio Sabaté, curator of Mediterranean Manifesto, for providing us with the requisite information and images
