exhibition Archives

Barbican's Unravel exhibition explores the subversive power of textiles

Curator Lotte Johnson discusses the transformative power of textiles in this video produced by Dezeen for the Barbican’s latest exhibition.

Titled Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, the exhibition examines how textiles have been employed to explore themes spanning power, oppression, gender and belonging.

It features over 100 works that make use of textile, fibre and thread from over 50 artists from across the globe, spanning from the 1960s to the present day.

The exhibition explores how artists have used textiles to express their lived experience

The exhibition is designed to challenge the perception of textiles being solely domestic or craft practices and instead features textile works that relate a story of resistance and rebellion as well as pieces that present narratives of emancipation and joy.

Johnson explained that textiles offer a meaningful medium to express personal and political issues due to their tactile nature and intimate connection to daily life.

“Textiles are one of the most under-examined mediums in art history and in fact history itself,” Johnson said. “They are an intrinsic part of our everyday lives. When we’re born, we’re shrouded in a piece of fabric. Everyday we wrap ourselves in textiles,” she continued.

“They’re really this very intimate, tactile part of our lives and therefore perhaps the most intrinsic, meaningful way to express ourselves.”

Judy Chicago Birth Project — Feminist artist Judy Chicago’s Birth Project depicts birth as a mystical and confrontational process

The exhibition is structured into six thematic sections. The first, called Subversive Stitch, presents works that challenge binary conceptions of gender and sexuality.

The section includes feminist artist Judy Chicago’s Birth Project, which vividly depicts the glory, pain and mysticism of giving birth, as well as a piece from South African artist Nicholas Hlobo, which, despite initially appearing as a painting, is made using ribbon and leather stitched into a canvas.

Another section of the exhibition is titled Bearing Witness, which brings together artists who employ textiles to confront and protest political injustices and systems of violent oppression.

Teresea Margolles tapestry — Artist Teresa Margolles creates collective tapestries that trigger conversations on police brutality

Included in this section are tapestries by Mexican artist Teresa Margolles that commemorate the lives of individuals including Eric Garner and Jadeth Rosano López.

Garner was an African-American man killed in 2014 by NYPD police officer Daniel Pantaleo, who put Garner into a chokehold during arrest. López was a seventeen-year old-girl assassinated in Panama City.

Margolles used fabric that had been placed in contact with the victims’ deceased bodies and collaborated with embroiderers from their respective local communities to create the tapestries.

The Wound and Repair sections includes work from American artist and activist Harmony Hammond’s Bandaged Grid series, in which layered fabric is used to evoke imagery reminiscent of an injured body.

Tau Lewis tapestry — Tau Lewis’ fabric assemblages offer new narratives of black histories

While violence and brutality are key themes examined in the exhibition, it also showcases how textiles can be used to create narratives of hope. The final, most expansive section of the exhibition is titled Ancestral Threads, which encompasses works created to inspire a sense of optimism and reconnect with ancestral practices.

“This section not only explores artists processing exploitative and violent colonial and imperialist histories, but also celebrates the artists who are re-summoning and relearning ancient knowledge systems to imagine a different kind of future,” Johnson explained.

Canadian multimedia artist Tau Lewis’s work titled The Coral Reef Preservation Society is a patchwork assemblage of recycled fabrics and seashells including fragments of textured denim.

The work pays homage to the enslaved women and children thrown overboard in the Middle Passage, the historical transportation route used during the Atlantic slave trade. These women and children have been reimagined as underwater sea creatures to transform the narrative into one of regeneration.

Vicuña revives the art of the quipu in her installation Quipu Austral

A large installation by Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña titled Quipu Austral is situated towards the end of the exhibition. The installation takes the form of billowing ribbons hanging from the ceiling.

Vicuña references quipu, a form of recording used by a number cultures in Andean South America. Quipu was a ancient writing system which used knotted textile cords to communicate information.

Other sections in the exhibition include Fabric of Everyday, which explores the daily uses of textiles, as well as Borderlands, which examines how textiles have been used to challenge ideas around belonging.

These sections feature works such as Shelia Hicks’ colourful woven bundles and Margarita Cabrera’s soft sculpture cacti crafted from reclaimed US border patrol uniforms.

Mexican-American artist Margarita Cabrera uses reclaimed border patrol uniforms in her work

“We hope that people might come out of this exhibition feeling invigorated and moved by the stories of resilience and rebellion embedded in the work but also hope and emancipation,” Johnson said.

“I hope that the show might inspire people to pick up a needle and thread themselves and use it to express their own lived experience.”

The show is a partnership between the Barbican and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and was co-curated by Barbican curators Johnson, Wells Fray-Smith and Diego Chocano, in collaboration with Amanda Pinatih from the Stedelijk.

Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art is at the Barbican Centre until 26 May 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen for the Barbican Centre as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen’s partnership content here.

Reference

Archival Image in Tropical Modernism exhibition at the V&A London

Interior Design

Tropical Modernism exhibition explores “the politics behind the concrete”

By Zarkon Group,14/03/2024

London’s Victoria and Albert Museum has launched its Tropical Modernism exhibition, which highlights the architectural movement’s evolution from colonial import to a “tool of nation building”.

According to the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), the exhibition aims to examine the complex context, power dynamics and post-colonial legacy of tropical modernism – an architectural style that developed in South Asia and West Africa in the late 1940s – while also centralising and celebrating its hidden figures.

“Tropical modernism is experiencing something of a modish revival as an exotic and escapist style popular in verdant luxury hotels, bars and concrete jungle houses,” the exhibition’s lead curator Christopher Turner told Dezeen.

“But it has a problematic history and, through an examination of the context of British imperialism and the de-colonial struggle, the exhibition seeks to look at the history of tropical modernism before and after Independence, and show something of the politics behind the concrete,” he continued.

Installation shot of Tropical Modernism exhibition at the V&A London — The exhibition traces the evolution of tropical modernism within a South Asian and West African context

The exhibition follows the V&A’s Tropical Modernism exhibition at the 2023 Venice Biennale, which revealed the team’s precursory research on tropical modernism in a West African setting.

For the in-house iteration of the exhibition, additional architectural models, drawings and archival imagery have been introduced to interrogate tropical modernism in India alongside the African perspective.

Exhibition materials line a series of rooms within the V&A’s Porter Gallery, divided by brightly coloured partitions and louvred walls referencing tropical modernist motifs.

The exhibition begins by tracing tropical modernism back to its early development by British architects Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry. Stationed together in Ghana from 1944, Drew and Fry adapted international modernism to the African climate, proposing functional over ornamental design.

Drew and Fry would also become part of the Department of Tropical Studies at the Architectural Association (AA), which exported British architects to the colonies from 1954 in a bid to neutralise calls for independence.

The exhibition continues by spotlighting local Ghanaian figures who worked with Fry and Drew, noting the power shifts that were taking place behind the scenes to reappropriate the architectural style for an emerging era of colonial freedom.

Influential political leaders Jawaharlal Nehru in India and Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana are the exhibition’s key personas, framing the evolution of tropical modernism from conception to regionalisation.

“The heroes of our exhibition are Nehru and Nkrumah, the first prime ministers of India and Ghana,” Turner explained. “Tropical modernism, a colonial invention, survived the transition to Independence and was appropriated and adapted by Nehru and Nkrumah as a tool of nation building.”

“Nkrumah, who sometimes sketched designs for the buildings he wanted on napkins, created the first architecture school in sub-Saharan Africa to train a new generation of African architects, and this institution has partnered with us on a five-year research project into tropical modernism.”

Archival image of University College Ibadan used in Tropical Modernism exhibition at the V&A London — According to the V&A’s research, tropical modernism shifted from its western Bauhaus roots towards a localised vernacular styles

Through a host of physical models and artefacts, the city of Chandigarh becomes the exhibition’s narrative focal point for tropical modernism in India.

Under prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Chandigarh was the first large-scale modernist project, recruiting Drew and Fry along with French architect Le Corbusier to plan the ideal utopian urban centre.

As with Nkrumah – who saw how the Africanisation of architecture could become a symbol of progress and change – the exhibition also aims to highlight Nehru’s ambitions for a localised modernism drawing from the Indian vernacular, rather than the Western Bauhaus style.

The display culminates in a video featuring 16 key tropical modernist structures, interspersed with interviews and footage explaining the social and political context behind each building’s realisation.

“We made a three-screen 28-minute film, shot in Ghana and featuring panoramic portraits of over a dozen buildings, cut with archive footage from the time and interviews with architects like John Owusu Addo and Henry Wellington, and Nkrumah’s daughter, the politician Samia Nkrumah,” said Turner.

Archival image of Maxwell Fry and John Noah used in Tropical Modernism exhibition at the V&A London — The exhibition aims to address gaps in the museum’s African and South Asian studies

According to Turner, the exhibition begins to address gaps in the V&A’s collections and archives pertaining to architecture and design in the global south.

“Archives are themselves instruments of power, and West African and Indian architects are not as prominent in established archives, which many institutions have now realised and are working to address,” Turner explained.

“Tropical modernism was very much a co-creation with local architects who we have sought to name – all of whom should be much better known, but are excluded from established canons.”

Bringing tropical modernism back into contemporary discourse was also important to the V&A as a timely investigation of low-tech and passive design strategies.

“Tropical modernism was a climate responsive architecture – it sought to work with rather than against climate,” Turner said.

“As we face an era of climate change, it is important that tropical modernism’s scientifically informed principles of passive cooling are reexamined and reinvented for our age,” he added.

“I hope that people will be interested to learn more about these moments of post-colonial excitement and opportunity, and the struggle by which these hard-earned freedoms were won.”

Image of video used in the Tropical Modernism exhibition at the V&A London — A 28-minute video captures footage of remaining tropical modernist structures at the end of the exhibition

The V&A museum in South Kensington houses permanent national collections alongside a series of temporary activations and exhibitions.

As part of London Design Festival 2023, the museum hosted a furniture display crafted from an Alfa Romeo car by Andu Masebo and earlier in the year, architect Shahed Saleem created a pavilion in the shape of a mosque at the V&A as part of 2023’s Ramadan Festival.

The photography is courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence will run from 2 March to 22 September 2024 at the V&A Museum in London. For more events, exhibitions and talks in architecture and design visit the Dezeen Events Guide.

Reference

Interior Design

Ten highlights from Design Doha exhibition Arab Design Now

By Zarkon Group,28/02/2024

A disaster-proof chandelier from Lebanon and a towering sand dune-style stone installation feature in Arab Design Now, the main exhibition at the inaugural Design Doha biennial.

Arab Design Now was curated by Rana Beiruti to capture the spirit of contemporary design across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the curator told Dezeen ahead of the opening of the first Design Doha.

Set within the Qatari capital’s M7 building, the design biennial draws together a range of collectible design and installations.

Selected works from 74 participants paid homage to the MENA region’s “extremely harsh and unique geography” and investigated the “use of materials as a guiding principle,” explained Beiruti.

Here are 10 of Dezeen’s highlights from Arab Design Now, which is on display in Doha until early August.

Sites – New Sites by Studio Anne Holtrop

Bahrain- and Amsterdam-based architect Anne Holtrop has designed a cluster of large-scale mobiles made from vast slabs of lumpy resin.

Holtrop took casts of a series of manmade and natural sites that he found across Qatar to create the textured pieces, which hang from bearing mechanisms and can be manually rotated by visitors to produce continuously moving formations.

Constellations 2.0: Object. Light. Consciousness by Abeer Seikaly

Over 5,000 pieces of Murano glass were woven together by Jordanian-Palestinian designer Abeer Seikaly to create this chandelier, which combines Bedouin weaving practices from Jordan with traditional Venetian glassmaking techniques.

Brass and stainless steel were also integrated into the lighting, made flexible by the glass mesh.

Once illuminated, the sculptural piece creates dramatic light patterns that nod to a starry night sky seen from the Badia desert, according to Seikaly.

House Between a Jujube Tree and a Palm Tree by Civil Architecture

Kuwait and Bahrain-based office Civil Architecture has designed a looming fibreglass roof proposal for a majlis – the traditional term for an Arabic gathering space.

“It’s a 1:1 model of a roof of an actual house that we designed in Bahrain,” studio co-founder Hamed Bukhamseen told Deezen.

Supported by steel and suspended from tension cables, the majlis features openings designed to accommodate tall trees and was created to explore the “symbiotic but blurred” relationship between indoor and outdoor settings.

Nubia, Hathor and Gros Guillaume Stool by Omar Chakil

French-Egyptian-Lebanese designer Omar Chakil was informed by his father’s homeland of Egypt when he chose alabaster onyx to create this monolithic shelving, a bulbous coffee table and a stool that glides across the floor on wheels.

Taking cues from ancient practices, Chakil carved the rounded furniture from raw blocks of the material, which was sanded down over time using water rather than covered in varnish – something that the designer said had became common in Egypt, especially when making “cheap” souvenirs.

“The whole idea of the collection was to use Egyptian alabaster, which was a healing stone,” Chakil told Dezeen.

“The pharaohs used [the material], then it transformed it over time. It lost its soul. So I tried to put it in the contemporary context by using the shapes that healing emotions would take – so they are round and soft, even though they are very heavy,” he added.

“I see that people are afraid to, but I want them to touch the furniture.”

Tiamat by AAU Anastas

Palestinian architecture office AAU Anastas is presenting Tiamat, a dune-shaped installation that forms part of the studio’s ongoing project, Stone Matters, which explores the potential of combining historical stone building techniques with modern technologies to encourage the use of structural stone.

Positioned for visitors to walk through, the installation is a towering structure made of stone sourced from Bethlehem and informed by the Gothic-style architecture found across Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.

According to AAU Anastas, the light, sound reverberations and climate control within Tiamat’s internal space is unique to stone construction.

Clay in Context by Sama El Saket

Jordan-born architect and ceramicist Sama El Saket took cues from her native landscape when creating this “taxonomy of Jordanian clays”.

The result is a set of spindle bottle-style vessels, each made of a different natural clay found across Jordan. This gives the pieces their distinctive colours, textures and character.

“These are all natural clays with no pigments added,” El Saket told Dezeen. “The colours are attributed to the different minerals that are found within the region. Some are sandier, some are rockier.”

The designer noted that while Jordan features an abundance of clay deposits and a rich history of ceramic production, today most Jordanian clay is imported.

Light Impact by Fabraca Studios

Lebanese industrial design brand Fabraca Studios has created Light Impact, a solid aluminium lighting fixture that was designed as an alternative chandelier, resembling durable ropes.

The piece was made to replace a glass chandelier that shattered in the aftermath of the 2020 Beiruit explosion, which destroyed a large part of Lebanon’s capital city.

Light Impact is defined by “flexible characteristics designed to withstand another disaster,” studio founder Samer Saadeh told Dezeen. He added that the piece, which includes internal brass components, was designed as an ode to Beirut’s adaptability and resilience.

Eleven by Sahel Alhiyari

Eleven is a cluster of tall fluted terracotta columns by Jordanian architect Sahel Alhiyari that were made through moulding and forming rather than traditional cutting and carving.

The architect handcrafted the segments, which are vertically stacked, using a similar technique to pottery-making,

“As you twist and turn the material, it creates all of this stuff,” Alhiyari told Dezeen. The designer explained that the columns were deliberately created to celebrate imperfections, despite referencing classical architecture.

Sediments by Talin Hazbar

UAE-based Syrian designer Talin Hazbar is featuring her Sediments project, which previously gained recognition at Dubai Design Week.

The work consists of blocky seating made from fishing ropes and fishing cage ropes extracted from the Persian Gulf with the assistance of the Dubai Voluntary Diving Team.

Also made up of recycled rubber grains, the heavily textured seating was created to serve as a reminder of how we might attempt to clean up damaged coastlines, according to Hazbar.

Whispers from the Deep by T Sakhi

Lebanese-Polish sisters Tessa and Tara El Sakhi of the studio T Sakhi combined discarded metal salvaged from factories in Veneto, Italy, with Murano glass to create amorphous glassware that takes cues from underwater sea creatures.

These pieces were arranged atop dramatic shelving inside the elevator connecting the first and second floors of the Arab Design Now exhibition.

The result is a playful installation that draws together the Venetian lagoon and Lebanese glassblowing traditions.

The photography is by Edmund Sumner unless stated otherwise.

Arab Design Now takes place at Design Doha from 24 February to 5 August 2024 at M7 in Doha, Qatar. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

Reference

Hem exhibition stand at Stockholm Furniture Fair

Sustainable News

Stockholm Furniture Fair exhibition stands designed to cut down on waste

By Zarkon Group,22/02/2024

Is it possible to stage a trade fair without producing excessive waste? Dezeen editor-at-large Amy Frearson explores eight approaches that were all on show at this year’s Stockholm Furniture Fair.

The trade show format is increasingly under scrutiny, with environmental concerns prompting many to reconsider the material cost of building large exhibition stands that are only used for a few days.

Stockholm Furniture Fair has pointed a way towards how trade fairs might become more eco-friendly. The majority of exhibitions and stands at this year’s edition of the fair were designed to reduce waste and promote circularity.

“A new layout to promote less construction”

Hanna Nova Beatrice, director of Stockholm Furniture Fair, said that numerous strategies were set out to reduce the carbon footprint of the fair.

“First and foremost, we updated the halls with a new layout to promote less construction,” she said.

Nova Beatrice and her team also drew up “very strict guidelines” that were applied to all of the in-house exhibitions, and worked closely with exhibiting brands to help them find more sustainable solutions.

“We had many discussions about how fairs can be more sustainable, promoting less construction and less waste, both within the organisation and with our exhibitors,” she explained.

Here’s a look at eight approaches that featured:

Create island stands without walls

The new fair layout made it possible for some brands to create “island stands” formed simply of a floor surface that could be easily repurposed or recycled.

Brands adopting this approach included Hem, whose stand was defined by bold chequerboard flooring. The result was a space that became a de facto public plaza.

Nola exhibition stand at Stockholm Furniture Fair — Photo is by Sanna Lindberg

Use products to frame space

Swedish outdoor furniture brand Nola put its own spin on the island stand by making clever use of one of its new products, the Moiré pavilion by designer Mattias Rubin de Lima.

By installing two of these pergola structures, Nola was able to create a simple frame for its stand. This was accompanied by a floor formed of recycled bricks, making the space feel like a garden patio.

Pholc installation at Stockholm Furniture Fair

Build an installation rather than a stand

The fair organisers encouraged some brands to find ways to exhibit using no construction at all. “Think Lars Von Trier’s Dogville, which used only tape to divide the different areas,” Nova Beatrice explained.

One of the most successful examples came from Pholc. The Swedish lighting brand worked with design agency Nineties to create a multilayered scenography out of stacked packing crates.

Lammhults exhibition stand at Stockholm Furniture Fair — Photo is by Erik Lefvander

Creatively repurpose an old stand

Many Stockholm exhibitors chose to reuse a stand they had already used before, either for a previous edition of this fair or for one of the many others on the furniture design calendar.

One of the most simple and effective approaches came from Swedish furniture brand Lammhults, which reuses the same stand every year but simply paints it in a different colour. For this year, the cobalt blue of 2023 was replaced with a bold shade of red.

Other noteworthy examples included fellow Swedish brand Mitab, which opted for transparency. Its stand featured a counter that made clear how it had used the same stand for the last five years. “This is the same bar we used last year. And we will use next year,” read text printed on the front.

Minus Furniture exhibition stand at Stockholm Furniture Fair — Photo is by Felix Odell

Work with waste materials

Minus Furniture made its fair debut with a stand built entirely from recycled materials, in line with the Norwegian brand’s ambitiously eco-friendly business model.

Interiors studio Omhu went to great lengths to source everything. Together with a rented scaffolding system, the design included items sourced from construction sites, second-hand stores and municipal waste.

“Not every company wants to put in the work to think in this manner. It takes time and research to demonstrate and source supplies of a circular nature,” said Poppy Lawman, designer at Omhu.

Reading Room by Formafantasma — Photo is by Andy Liffner

Find a new home for everything

All of the fair’s own exhibitions were designed for circularity, which meant rehoming every component once the fair was over. The Reading Room installation by guest of honour Formafantasma was one of the best examples.

Both the fabric curtain that framed the space and the books displayed inside have been donated to design schools, while the Flos lighting has been gifted to a bookshop. The Artek furniture is meanwhile being sold by retailer Nordiska Galleriet as signed limited editions.

The Yellow Thread bar and stage by Färg & Blanche — Photo is by Andy Liffner

Adapt an old design for a new purpose

The bar and stage installation by Stockholm-based Färg and Blanche was first created for Sweden’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which took place in the first six months of 2023.

The design duo adapted the components into a new configuration so that they could be reused here, along with flooring that manufacturer Tarkett plans to repurpose at its factory in Ronneby.

New Ventures area at Stockholm Furniture Fair — Photo is by Andy Liffner

Keep things simple

Young brands exhibiting for the first time were invited to make use of ready-made booths designed by designer Nick Ross, rather than building their own.

This “nude edition” was built from recycled materials – an aluminium truss system created freestanding wall modules in untreated MDF – that are now being recycled again.

“The entire area can be disassembled and reused for other events,” explained Ross.

Reference

Table made from a stack of vertical logs and a cardboard top

Interior Design

Medprostor stacks firewood for Ljubljana design biennial exhibition

By Zarkon Group,27/11/2023

Firewood logs were used as modular stackable elements for the scenography of the BIO27 Super Vernaculars design biennial in Ljubljana, Slovenia, which has been shortlisted for a 2023 Dezeen Award.

Curated by Jane Withers, the 27th edition of the city’s design biennial took place at the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) in the summer of 2022.

The four-month presentation explored how designers and architects are adapting vernacular traditions and value systems to respond to contemporary challenges like water scarcity, waste and declining biodiversity.

Similarly, the brief for the exhibition design was to rethink classic parameters and consider sustainability in the context of a temporary show.

Bundles of firewood used as exhibition display podiums — The firewood bundles were used to display various design projects throughout MAO

Slovenian architecture studio Medprostor chose to create the scenography from a readily available, locally sourced material that could be entirely reused at the end of the show.

“Walls, planes, piles and lines of firewood are a part of the Slovenian visual landscape, as almost 59 per cent of the country is forested,” said Medprostor.

“By only using the standard logs and non-invasive stacking and binding methods, all the material was returned to the supplier for further resale and use.”

Images held up by vertical logs — The logs were pre-cut to standard lengths so they could be reused

Pre-cut to standard lengths, the logs were oriented vertically and bound together to create tables and platforms of varying heights and sizes throughout the exhibit areas.

Some of the logs were notched in their tops to hold photographs and texts mounted on honeycomb cardboard sheets, which also formed flat horizontal surfaces for displaying items by participating designers.

Photos and texts mounted onto honeycomb cardboard placed on top of logs — Photos mounted onto honeycomb cardboard were placed in notches on top of the logs

Bundles were also laid on their sides to act as low-lying display podiums for larger pieces.

“The aim was to explore ways of stacking wood that are based in traditional techniques but can at the same time support new shapes and methods that evoke a sense of contemporaneity,” Medprostor said.

Orange and grey straps supporting hanging cardboard panels — Orange and grey straps recycled from the shipping industry were used to bind the logs

The grey and orange straps used to bind the wood and to hang cardboard panels from the ceiling were reused from the shipping industry.

A few panels also incorporated video screens or served as a backdrop for projections, adding another medium through which the curated projects could be articulated.

Medprostor collaborated with graphic designers Studio Kruh and AA to continue the low-impact approach to the exhibition graphics and signage, which were primarily printed on-site at the museum.

Additionally, the firewood was able to extend its drying process for the duration of the biennial, making it more energy-efficient when finally used as fuel, according to the studio.

Hanging panel used as a projector backdrop — Hanging panels incorporated video screens and were used as projector backdrops

“The drier the wood, the higher heating value and better environmental footprint it has,” Medprostor said. “While in the museum, logs can dry additionally and be returned to the supplier for further resale with a better ecological footprint.”

“The museum becomes a part of the process of curing the wood.”

Exhibition display stands built from firewood — All of the firewood was returned to the supplier when the exhibition ended

The BIO27 Super Vernaculars scenography has been shortlisted in the exhibition design category of the 2023 Dezeen Awards, along with a shrink-wrapped exhibition design by Didier Faustino and a showcase of recycled steel chairs by Daisuke Yamamoto.

The awards will be presented during a ceremony and party in London on Tuesday 28 November 2023, with creative direction by The Unlimited Dream Company.

The photography is by Ana Skobe and Klemen Ilovar.

BIO27 Super Vernaculars took place at the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO), Ljubljana, Slovenia from 26 May to 29 September 2022. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

Project credits:

Location: Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO), Ljubljana, Slovenia
Exhibition design: Medprostor: Rok Žnidaršič, Jerneja Fischer Knap, Katarina Čakš, Teja Gorjup
Graphic design: Studio Kruh + AA
Curator: Jane Withers
Assistant curator: Ria Hawthorn
BIO27 director: Anja Radović

Reference

Designers for You Can Sit With Us by 2LG Studio

Interior Design

2LG Studio includes emerging designers in You Can Sit With Us exhibition

By Zarkon Group,29/09/2023

Russell Whitehead and Jordan Cluroe of 2LG Studio have curated You Can Sit With Us, a London Design Festival show that offered “a seat at the table” to a diverse mix of emerging designers.

The 2LG Studio founders invited 13 designers from a mix of nationalities, races, genders and backgrounds to be a part of the exhibition, which was on show at London Design Fair.

The exhibition took the form of a dining room, featuring a long table surrounded by chairs that were each designed by a different participant.

Whitehead and Cluroe came up with the concept based on their own experiences of trying to break into the design industry and being made to feel like outsiders.

Chair by Anna Maria Øfstedal Eng in You Can Sit With Us by 2LG Studio — The chair by Anna Maria Øfstedal Eng features a black lacquer finish

“When we launched our practice nearly 10 years ago, there was an inner circle that felt very out of reach to us,” Whitehead told Dezeen.

“We were so bruised by the industry and felt blocked by certain doors that were firmly closed to us,” he continued.

“Instead of chasing acceptance where it wasn’t forthcoming, we decided to accept the love that was coming our way and put our energy there.”

Chair by Sam Klemick for You Can Sit With Us by 2LG Studio — Sam Klemick’s chair incorporates a sweater into its carved wood form

The aim of You Can Sit With Us, he said, was to give a platform to a new generation of designers who may be having similar experiences.

The exhibition’s name is a reference to the 2004 movie Mean Girls.

“We wanted this to be a safe space that actively welcomed new perspectives,” Whitehead explained.

Chair by Helen Kirkum for You Can Sit With Us by 2LG Studio — Helen Kirkum produced a lounge seat with upholstery made from trainer insoles

Among the most eye-catching designs in the show is a lounge seat with upholstery made from trainer insoles by Helen Kirkum, a footwear designer who typically crafts her designs from recycled sneakers.

Norwegian designer Anna Maria Øfstedal Eng has contributed a CNC-cut version of a hand-crafted ash chair she first made during the pandemic in a new black lacquer finish.

Chair by Benjamin Motoc — Benjamin Motoc’s piece playfully combines a sketch with a basic 3D form

A backrest with a sweater slung over it is part of the carved wood form of a design by California-based Sam Klemick, who had a career in fashion before she moved into furniture.

Rotterdam-based Benjamin Motoc created a piece that playfully combines a sketch with a basic 3D design, while Paris-based sculptor Bence Magyarlaki has produced a characteristically squidgy form.

Chair by Bence Magyarlaki — Bence Magyarlaki produced a characteristically squidgy form

Other chairs were designed by Amechi Mandi, Divine Southgate Smith, Wilkinson & Rivera, Net Warner, Hot Wire Extensions, Byard Works, Pulp Sculptuur and Blake C Joshua.

The participants were selected across design, art and fashion because Whitehead and Cluroe “didn’t want to enforce boundaries in that way”.

Chair by Byard Works — Rob Parker of Byard Works contributed a chair made from plywood and cork

Their chairs were arranged around a table produced by Smile Plastics using recycled plastic bottles and old tinsel, which created a glittering effect.

The exhibition was an important project for 2LG, and for Whitehead in particular, who battled mental health struggles following the pandemic.

The designer said the project allowed him to explore how “heart and emotion” can be a part of design.

“A lot of healing has taken place in the lead-up to this show,” he said.

Textiles by Granite + Smoke with 2LG Studio — Granite + Smoke produced blankets featuring the title, You Can Sit With Us

The project included a collaboration with textile brand Granite + Smoke, who produced colourful blankets emblazoned with the exhibition’s title message.

Whitehead and Cluroe also worked with homeware brand Sheyn on a series of suggestive 3D-printed vases.

“The collection we designed together is a celebration of our queerness, something we have not embraced fully in our product design output, but it felt more important than ever to put that out there right now,” added Whitehead.

You Can Sit With Us was on show at London Design Fair from 21 to 24 September as part of London Design Festival. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.

Reference

Architecture

Għallis exhibition suggests alternative to Malta’s “hyper-development”

By Zarkon Group,27/09/2023

Valentino Architects and curator Ann Dingli have presented a proposal to retrofit a historic fortification at the Venice Architecture Biennale to suggest alternative methods of conservation in the face of Malta’s rapid development.

Curated by Dingli, the small-scale exhibition was part of the Time Space Existence showcase and featured an abstracted plan to retrofit the 17th-century watchtower on the north-eastern shore of Malta.

“The Għallis watchtower in isolation is not remarkably significant – it’s been vacant for years,” Dingli told Dezeen. “But it belongs to a network of micro-fortifications that were built along the edge of the islands in the 17th century and tell a part of the islands’ wider military story.”

“Today the tower is a marker along the coast and not much more,” she continued. “The point of the exhibition is to re-charge its significance by introducing new usability and graduating it from just a visual landmark to a habitable space.”

Venice Architecture Biennale exhibition — It focused on an abstracted plan to retrofit the 17th-century watchtower

With its proposal, the team suggests changing the use of the building to create a multi-use structure that can be utilised in numerous ways.

“The design reverses the exclusive nature of the tower – conceived as a fortress designed to keep people out – to an inclusive building that invites people in,” explained Valentino Architects.

“Its programme is flexible, adapting to three permutations that allow for varying degrees of private use and public access.”

Exhibition of a historic watchtower — The team proposed renovating the tower

The tower was showcased at the biennale to draw attention to a wider issue facing Malta – the commercialisation of its historic buildings.

The team aimed to demonstrate that historic buildings could be converted into useable structures rather than being restored as empty monuments.

“Heritage architecture in Malta has a strong focus on preservation of building fabric and less so on functional innovation,” said Dingli.

“This means heritage buildings very often serve one programme – usually as museums of themselves or as institutional buildings – and as a result become inaccessible or redundant to everyday use,” she continued.

“This design moves away from heritage as a product and towards heritage as useful space.”

The team hopes that the exhibition will draw attention to the rapid development of Malta, which it says is happening at the expense of the country’s existing buildings.

“The islands are on a seemingly unstoppable trajectory of hyper-development,” explained Dingli. “Malta is the most densely populated country in the EU, and one of the most densely populated countries in the world.”

“Its built environment hasn’t met this intensity with the right blend of retrofit and newbuild development – the former exists in extreme scarcity, despite a huge stock of existing building fabric crying out to be re-used in smarter ways,” she continued.

Render of kitchen — The team proposed turning into a multi-use space

Although the exhibition focuses on a historic fortification, the team believes that prioritising reuse over rebuilding should be implemented across the country.

“The argument for conservation needs to be extended to any form of building stock, not just heritage buildings,” explained Valentino Architects.

“Demolishing existing buildings to make way for new ones is almost never sustainable,” they continued. “When there is no alternative but to remove a building, we need to advocate for dismantling as opposed to demolishing.”

“Materials such as Malta’s local yellow limestone – which has traditionally carved out the architectural identity of our island – is a finite resource that needs to be both protected and used,” they added.

Alongside the Għallis exhibition, the Time Space Existence show presented work by architects, designers and artists from 52 different countries in venues across the city. These included a tea house made from food waste and a concrete emergency housing prototype developed by the Norman Foster Foundation and Holcim.

The photography is by Federico Vespignani.

Time Space Existence takes place from 20 May to 26 November 2023 at various locations across Venice, Italy. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

Reference

Architecture

MoMA exhibition examines history of environmental architecture

By Zarkon Group,16/09/2023

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has opened an exhibition focused on the relationship between environmentalism and architecture in the 20th century.

The exhibition, called Emerging Ecologies: Architecture and the Rise of Environmentalism, details work – built and conceptual – produced during the 20th century and features a number of drawings, photographs, models and interactive elements.

Organised by the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) recently established Ambasz Institute, it is was created to expose the public to strains of thinking, including some that are relatively unknown to the broad public.

“The aim is to have, for the first time in a major museum, a platform where the fraught relationship between architecture and environment can really be discussed and researched and communicated to a wider public,” exhibition curator and Ambasz Institute director Carson Chan told Dezeen.

The show is largely historical, focusing mainly on the work done in the 1960s and ’70s, when environmentalist themes were being exposed to the general public on a massive scale, evidenced by the popularity of ideas like those in Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring.

However, precursors to that moment, such as work by early twentieth-century modern architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, with his organic architecture, and Richard Neutra’s “climate-sensitive architecture”, were also included.

Women architects in front of built house — The exhibition featured documentation of built and conceptual work. Photo is of Eleanor Raymond and Mária Telkes at the Dover Sun House. 1948, courtesy of MoMA

Chan told Dezeen that this historical focus was presented to orient contemporary audiences to the roots of current movements.

“A lot of ideas have changed from that moment, half a century ago,” he said. “The show is looking at how far we’ve come from that moment, but also look at what we can learn from that moment to trying to understand where people were coming from, why they kind of the ambitions they had, why they wanted to do things, the things they wanted to do,” he continued.

“Assessing that moment is a big part of the show.”

Emilio Ambasz tree-lined building — The exhibition focused on 20th-century environmentalist architecture. Photo is of Emilio Ambasz’s Prefectural International Hall, Fukuoka, Japan by Hiromi Watanabe, courtesy of MoMA

The works include a number of highly conceptual architectural projects such as American architect Buckminster Fuller’s proposed dome over Manhattan, Glen Small‘s sci-fi-inflected Biomorphic Biospheres and Malcolm Wells‘s underground architecture. The paintings of contemporary architect Eugene Tsuii also demonstrated biomorphic forms.

These works imagined radical infrastructures that accounted for changing environments and growing populations

Futuristic Architecture drawing — The exhibition showed precursors to current environmental thinking. Image is of Glen Small’s Biomorphic Biosphere, courtesy of MoMA

The exhibition also included built work including Michael Reynolds‘s waste-built Earthships and the New Alchemy Institute‘s self-sufficient ark buildings, as well as the tree-covered works of Argentine architect Emilio Ambasz, after whom the MoMA’s aforementioned institute was named.

There were also works of radical cartography that served to show the complexity of the landscape. These included American academic Ian McHarg’s detailed ecological maps of the Delaware Upper Estuary, which showed data-driven layers of ecological features such as soil conditions and sun conditions.

However, Chan was careful to note that these understandings of environments predated the environmental movement.

“Doing research or producing knowledge about the environment – or as I call it, producing ecological knowledge about the environment – did not start in the ’60s and ’70s,” he said. “There are communities of Indigenous people that have been tending to the land for generations.”

“The Delaware River Basin is the ancestral homeland of the Lenape people who possessed this very knowledge already. And we could have received it from them if they weren’t displaced in the first place,” he continued.

“Making structures requires money and requires people to be proximate to power. And so this is one reason why historically we haven’t seen a lot of structures by people of color, and by women.”

Dome for enviromental architecture — It reflects architecture’s changes in the face of environmental degradation. Photo is of Aladar Olgyay and Victor Olgyay’s Thermoheliodon by Guy Gillette, courtesy of MoMA

The inclusion of these groups mainly focused on activism. For example, a protest against a proposed dam on ancestral land by the Yavapai people showed how the stoppage of landscape-altering super projects is in itself a kind of architecture.

“Subtracting is also a way of making architecture,” said Chan.

In addition to the images and models in the exhibition, the curators also included a number of small audio devices that included commentary from contemporary architects and designers such as Jeanne Gang and Mai-Ling Lokko, aimed at contextualising the historical work.

The Ambasz Institute was created to promote environmentalism in the architectural field and besides exhibitions, it will also carry out a number of community outreach projects and conferences.

Other exhibitions that examine architectural history include an exhibition showcasing the history and work of Vkhutemas, a Soviet avant-garde school of architecture at the Cooper Union in New York City.

The main image is of Cambridge Seven Associates’ Tsuruhama Rain Forest Pavilion, courtesy of MoMA.

Emerging Ecologies is on show at MoMA from 17 September 2023 to 20 January 2024. For more exhibitions, events and talks in architecture and design, visit the Dezeen Events Guide.

Reference

Interior Design

Gallery Fumi marks 15th anniversary with Growth + Form exhibition

By Zarkon Group,13/09/2023

To celebrate 15 years of Gallery Fumi, the London gallery is hosting the Growth + Form exhibition of “functional art”, featuring sculptural furniture and lighting with organic forms.

The Growth + Form exhibition includes new works by 16 of the 28 past Gallery Fumi exhibitors, responding to themes of transformation, regeneration and biological growth patterns.

It was designed by architectural designer Leendert De Vos and curated by design historian Libby Sellers, who invited former exhibitors back to showcase new pieces in a group display.

The exhibition title and theme were informed by the On Form and Growth book by Scottish biologist D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, which analyses the mathematical harmony of growing shapes in biology.

Sculptural furniture at the Growth and Form exhibition — Pieces in the exhibition were informed by biology

Responding to this biological starting point, furniture and lighting with organic shapes and natural materials can be seen throughout the exhibition.

Danish artist Stine Bidstrup created a sculptural chandelier titled Light Entanglements, made up of twisting clusters of hand-blown glass.

Chandelier and chair at Gallery Fumi — Light Entanglements is a chandelier made from hand-blown glass

Different lengths of painted sticks were combined to create Marmaros Metamorphosis II, a circular decorative wall piece with a textured, tufted-like surface by sculptor Rowan Mersh.

“Revisiting the very beginning of his career when Mersh used cheap materials to experiment with techniques, in this work using lacquered coloured sticks, he creates forms with the details and skill level he currently attains when using precious materials,” said Gallery Fumi.

Furniture at the Growth and Form exhibition at Gallery Fumi — Seating crafted from a single yew log is featured in the exhibition

As the gallery celebrates its 15th anniversary, Sellers likened its growth to the formation of crystals – the material traditionally associated with 15-year anniversaries.

“Grown from small particles into a solid form of geometric beauty, crystal is both a poetic metaphor for Gallery Fumi’s own development over the last 15 years and an opportunity to explore the creative affinity between science, art, and the intricate nature of constructions,” said Sellers.

“After all, is this not a definition of design? The meeting of knowledge, form-making, material exploration and beauty?” Sellers added.

“The works are vibrant and active – sprouting, swirling, twisting, turning – transferring material and form into objects of beauty.”

Crystal table lamp at the Growth and Form exhibition at Gallery Fumi — Wegworth created a crystal salt vase for the exhibition

Also on show was a wooden cabinet covered in hand-painted shingles by Berlin-based designer Lukas Wegwerth, who also created a crystal salt vase titled Crystallization 183.

“Crystallization 183 was identified by Sellers as most significant for the exhibition, as not only is the 15-year anniversary traditionally celebrated with crystal, but the process of growing the crystals is a poetic metaphor for Fumi’s growth as a gallery,” Gallery Fumi said.

Wall art and stone chair at the Growth and Form exhibition at Gallery Fumi — The wall sculpture Marmaros Metamorphosis II has a tufted texture

Other pieces on display include a sculptural copper floor lamp with a stone base by London design studio JamesPlumb and a chair by British designer Max Lamb crafted from a single yew log.

“Tapping into the creative affinity between science and art, the pieces created for the show will display fluid organic forms, natural materials and geometric structures,” said Gallery Fumi.

Other designers showing work include US sculptor Casey McCafferty, Italian designer Francesco Perini, design studio Glithero, Chinese material designer Jie Wu, German ceramic artist Johannes Nagel, Finnish artist Kustaa Saksi, British artist Leora Honeyman, Spanish artist Saelia Aparicio, British artist Sam Orlando Miller, design studio Study O Portable and furniture design studio Voukenas Petrides.

Gallery Fumi was founded in 2008 by Valerio Capo and Sam Pratt. It has previously showcased work including a Jesmonite lighting collection by British designer Lara Bohinc and a limited-edition bench by JamesPlumb made using medieval dying techniques.

The photography is courtesy of Gallery Fumi.

The Growth + Form exhibition is on display at the Gallery Fumi in London, UK, from 7 to 30 September 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

Reference

Interior Design

Asteroid City exhibition immerses visitors in Wes Anderson’s film sets

By Zarkon Group,23/06/2023

An exhibition of the 1950s sets, props, miniature models, costumes and artwork used in Wes Anderson’s latest film Asteroid City has opened at 180 The Strand in London.

The exhibition was designed to immerse visitors in the film’s fictitious world – a desert town in 1950s America famous for its meteor crater and celestial observatory.

Its aim was to give visitors insight into the “1950s Americana world the film is set in”, said Asteroid City associate producer Ben Alder.

Asteroid City was filmed on flat farmland in Spain, with the buildings made for the film set up to appear like a town.

A model train on a rail track — The exhibition features large sets

“Everything you see in the film was physically built and laid out in a way that gave the actors and crew the sense of living in this real town,” Alder told Dezeen.

“The exhibition is a great way for people to see how much work went into all the elements of the film, like the costumes, because you can spend more time looking at how they are made and how much care went into them.”

Three character costumes in the Asteroid City film arranged around a desert patch with wooden shacks in the background — Film sets used in the Asteroid City movie are on display

Pieces in the exhibition are spread across three main spaces, with audio clips and parts of the film projected onto walls referencing scenes relevant to the nearby displays.

“The idea was to use the largest open space for the sets to give people the sense of how big they were on the film, and you can imagine how massive our Asteroid City town was,” said Alder.

Film costumes and props displayed at the Asteroid City exhibition — Costumes and props are on display

“Then there’s another space that’s a more traditional gallery-type curation where you can see smaller objects and props, going into the details of the characters,” Alder continued.

Mimicking the exterior of the cafe featured in the film, a temporary wooden structure decorated with menu lettering and a desert scene spans the entrance of 180 The Strand.

Sets displayed in the exhibition include white wooden residential shacks, a train carriage and a bathroom scene.

Other life-sized scenery props include telephone booths, billboard posters and humourous vending machines that dispense martinis and bullets in the film.

A row of colourful vending machines as part of a film set — The exhibition provides a close-up view of the Asteroid City film props

“There are moments where visitors are invited to be in the sets and interact with them,” said Alder.

“Not only can visitors see all the pieces from the film really closely but they can go inside some of the sets – they can sit inside the train compartment, recreate the scene with [actor] Scarlett [Johansson] in the window, or go into the telephone booth – which is something really special that not a lot of exhibitions have.”

Asteroid City exhibition with a model train and cactus — Visitors can explore a desert set

Some of the character costumes are arranged together with set pieces to recreate scenes from the film.

Also on display are puppets made by Andy Gent, who previously created puppets for Anderson’s films Isle of Dogs and Fantastic Mr Fox, and a series of glass flowers used in a stop-motion animation sequence where they transition from blooming to wilting.

Interior of a 1950s-style diner with a chalk board menu — The Asteroid City exhibition showcases many details from the film

The exhibition ends with a recreation of a luncheonette featured in the movie, where visitors can order food and drink.

It has a 1950s-style decor, with stools lined up along the service bar, pastel-coloured blinds and the image of a desert landscape framed inside fake windows.

1950s diner film set with square brown floor tiles and steel stools along the service bar — A 1950s-style cafe is at the end of the exhibition

Asteroid City is out in cinemas now.

Anderson is known for his distinctive film aesthetic, typified by retro influences and pastel colours. Interiors that have been informed by the director’s style include a pastel-yellow breakfast cafe in Sweden and a bottle shop in Los Angeles with mid-century influences.

The photography is courtesy of Universal Pictures and 180 Studios.

The Asteroid City exhibition is on display at 180 The Strand in London from 17 June to 8 July 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

Reference

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