Temporary Conversations

DesignTO is a registered charitable arts organization that believes design can create a sustainable, just, and joyful world. From January 23 – February 1, 2026, the DesignTO Festival features 100+ free events across Toronto, showcasing hundreds of artists and designers. Known as Canada’s largest annual design festival, DesignTO has welcomed over 1 million attendees, reached 2.6 billion people through media, supported 7+ creatives, and generated $120 million in tourism impact.“DesignTO isn’t just a festival; it’s an anti-loneliness machine,” co-founder Christina Zeidler remarked, underscoring the organization’s power to foster belonging and spark vital conversations about design’s role in shaping a better world.

DesignTO

‘Temporary Conversations: On Migration’ activates the ‘Traces’ exhibition by engaging in an open discourse around the future of migration.

Gallery 235 - Harbourfront Centre

Amidst artworks exploring artists’ personal responses to preserving culture and identity, ‘Temporary Conversations’ looks to designers and researchers bringing a policy and strategic outlook to the situation. The talk happens on the eponymously named artwork by Abhishek Wagle, and invites the audience to engage in the conversation throughout. This talk is organized by DesignTO with Abhishek Wagle, co-presented by Harbourfront Centre, and supported by the Ontario Arts Council. –––

Dima Ghazal is a Toronto-based visual artist and an OAA intern architect whose interdisciplinary practice spans visual production, photography, and text. Their research-driven work draws on architectural narrative and spatial analysis to examine urban remnants and liminal built environments, reframing them as sites animated by human presence, and worthy of care and advocacy. Their practice engages architecture, history, and theory to investigate how research methodologies shape our understanding of the built environment across time, translating these inquiries through expository writing, analytical drawing, and digital media. Their work has been featured in Scaffold Journal, and they contributed to the installation ‘Threshold’ at San Jose Airport.

Noah Gotlib is an architectural designer and researcher based between Toronto and New York, with strong interests in systems thinking and ecological design. He is the co-founder of Eolith, a think tank engaging in spatial research, design, and consultancy. Noah’s interests lie in the effects of climate change on the settlement patterns in North America. He is engaged in a project studying managed retreat, the systematic removal/relocation of communities and infrastructure away from environmental risks, and the impact of this process on cultural perceptions of nature and property. His work on the topic has received support from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Abhishek Wagle is an architectural designer and fabricator based in Toronto. He uses imagery, performance and sculpture to connect people and urge individuals to question their own perspectives and biases. His work explores decolonial theory, the immigrant experience, and the influence of policy, laws, and culture across the UK, Canada, and India. He is interested in tackling themes of belonging, storytelling and public perception in his work. He is currently interested in uncovering the relationships among Indigenous, settler, and immigrant cultures in Canada, using objects and events to build new networks. <h4>About DesignTO</h4><a href="https://designto.org/" title="https://designto.org/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">DesignTO</a> is a charitable arts organization celebrating 16 years of designing a sustainable, just, and joyful future. As Canada’s largest annual design festival, DesignTO has welcomed over 1 million attendees, reached 2.6 billion people through media, showcased 7,000+ artists and designers, and generated $159 million in tourism impact since 2011.

Temporary Conversations

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Temporary Conversations

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