Remember, Remember! The fifth of November Gunpowder, treason and plot...... Thus begins the traditional song commemorating, and urging us all never to forget, Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators attempts to overthrow the English parliament of the day, their plotting to install a new parliament, one more in line with their ideological position, for all one more in line with their ideological understanding of the English parliament's future relationship to the dominant extra-governmental power
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If Jean-Claude Juncker gets his way October 2018 could see the clocks of Europe turned back an hour for the final time. And thereby bringing to an end the long tradition of local newspapers publishing bi-annual articles documenting the curious tales and legends of town clocks, stories from the Schwarzwald on the largest and smallest cuckoo clocks, and photographs of horologists surrounded by the 350+ clocks and watches they need to reset. For our part, we'll miss them. It will also mean you
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According to Germanic lore, "ein guter Septemberregen kommt nie ungelegen", a good rain in September is never inopportune. This year arguably more so than ever. Similarly a good architecture and design exhibition in September is never inopportune. And, and keeping with rain metaphors, while we can all remember what rain is, September 2018, sees a proper downpour of new architecture and design exhibitions. A downpour that is particularly opportune. Following July's drought and its meagre 4
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Writing to his friend Heinrich Köselitz in August 1881 Friedrich Nietzsche remarked, "My dear friend! The August sun hangs over us, the year drifts by, it is quieter and more peaceful on the mountains and in the forests. On my horizon thoughts have arisen, the likes of which I have never known...." We like to imagine that those thoughts arose through his having visited an architecture and/or design exhibition. Were he still with us, we'd suggest he visited the following vista extending
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The Dog Days of summer are with us and, as is traditional, the international curatorial community have removed themselves to the cooler climes of their storerooms, archives and libraries to sit out the heat until autumn's bracing breeze tempts them back out. Which, logically, means a great sparsity of new architecture and design exhibitions opening in July 2018. A sparsity however isn't a nontity and in four of the world's cultural and meteorological hotspots one finds exhibition curators
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"Memphis in June, A shady veranda under a Sunday blue sky, Memphis in June, And cousin Amanda's makin' a rhubarb pie" (Memphis in June, Hoagy Carmichael) Sounds lovely Hoagy, but we'll have to pass, because despite Memphis having some interesting museums, we can't find one opening a new architecture or design exhibition in June 2018. Consequently, and unlike Marc Cohn, we'll not be "Walking in Memphis" this June, but in Düsseldorf, Espoo, Andelsbuch, Rotterdam and San Francisco..... "Anni
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In the wonderful month of May, As all the buds bloomed, My heart became, With Love consumed In the wonderful month of May, As all the birds did sing, I confessed to her My desire and yearning. Heinrich Heine, Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, 1827 And then??? Heinrich, don't leave us hanging! It all started out so positive! It's an awkward month May, the vitality of blooming buds and oratorio of singing birds luring us into hopeful fantasies, utopian visions of what lies ahead: but what will
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According to the German philologist, mythologist, folklorist and definer of the Germanic Umlaut, Jacob Grimm, an old belief states that the Cuckoo never sings before the 3rd of April; and, "should you have money in your pouch when you hear him sing the first time, you will be well off all that year, if not, you will be short the whole year" 1 Much like the cuckoo, our five new architecture & design exhibitions recommendations for April 2018 begin with their songs after April 3rd; and should
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Arguably because Passover/Easter is early this year, every, but every, museum is opening a major exhibition in the course of March 2018, in preparation for the unofficial start of the tourist season in April. A situation which leaves us with the daunting possibility of creating 5 such Top 5 lists. And still having some exhibitions left over. Faced with a similar situation back in November 2017 we referred to the abundance of options which lay before us as being akin to "gardens mottled with
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If academics are to be believed, which admittedly seems unnecessary given the wealth of irrefutable facts available on Twitter and Facebook, February has always been a short and flexible month. Initially non-existent - the contemporary January and February being once considered an indivisible "winter" - when the Romans decided to extend their calender, February was deliberately left shorter than all other months, largely for accounting purposes, that is, to allow it to be adjusted as the solar
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With his two faces the Roman God Janus looks simultaneously forward and backwards, standing in constant watch over transitions, the passage of time, beginnings, ends. The easy connection to make is with January, that month of the year when we are invariably reflecting and hoping in equal measure: the more complex connection to make is with a well-crafted architecture and design exhibition, one which effortlessly links reflections of the past with proposals, visions and excitement for the
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On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a ticket for a design exhibition. On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, two tickets for two design exhibitions, and a ticket for a design exhibition. On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me...... You get the idea. Our five goohoold rings for December 2017 are new architecture and design exhibitions in Winterthur, Barcelona, New York, Munich and Moscow. "Cupboard Love" at the Gewerbemuseum Winterthur,
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Like gardens mottled with the vibrant leaves of autumn, so too is November 2017 bestrewn with a multicoloured carpet of new design and architecture exhibitions. We could have published three such lists, seriously considered it .... have however instead taken the opportunity to bring our monthly recommendations average up to where it should be. Five. Back in August we only had four new recommendations, and so to compensate summer's shortfall, here we present six, technically seven. Although it
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"October is the month of painted leaves. Their rich glow now flashes round the world. As fruits and leaves and the day itself acquire a bright tint just before they fall, so the year near its setting. October is its sunset sky; November the later twilight" ‡ Before Henry David Thoreau's twilight comes, our five painted leaves, flashing their rich glow round the world from Nürnberg, Lausanne, Hamburg, Eindhoven and Barcelona. "On the art of building a teahouse" at the Neues Museum Nürnberg,
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The September architecture and design exhibition recommendations are arguably the cruellest to write: the fact that the majority of the exhibitions end in the depths of the European winter meaning that as we sit here hoping that summer keeps going just a little, little, longer.... we're forced to think about winter jackets and gloves. And so before things get that far, best get out there and visit an exhibition!! Our five recommendations for September 2017 feature new exhibitions in Weil am
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Summer traditionally sees a fall off in the number of new exhibitions opening, the 2017 drought is however especially hard, so much so that we can only find four recommendations. Either the global museum community assume we're all at the beach, and thus not interested, or expect the world to end in September and so don't see the point in new exhibitions. It is a little unclear. However, not only are we interested, but it takes a little more than the threat of an imminent apocalypse to keep us
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“What are you going to do this summer, Amory?”, Tom D’Invilliers asks of Amory Blaine in F Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise. “Don’t ask me", comes the somewhat languid reply, "same old things, I suppose. A month or two in Lake Geneva — I’m counting on you to be there in July, you know — then there'll be Minneapolis, and that means hundreds of summer hops, parlor-snaking, getting bored....." Sorry Amory, but you'll have to survive the magnificence of Lake Geneva on your own, would have
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In northern hemispheres June marks the start of both astronomical and meteorological summer. In southern hemispheres June marks the start of both astronomical and meteorological winter. The one rejoices, the other laments .... and we don't even notice, far too busy as we are perusing architecture and design exhibitions. Our five recommendations for June 2017 features new shows in Den Haag, Frankfurt, New York, Leipzig and Brussels. "Architecture and Interiors. The desire for Style" at the
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On May 1st 1851 Queen Victoria opened The Great Exhibition in Hyde Park London: the first "World's Fair", an event which celebrated the advances of the industrial age, and whose influence on industry, engineering, science, architecture and society was to resonate globally for decades, acting as it did as the motor for the quickening technological advances of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. While the profit generated from the 6 million visitors allowed for the construction of London's
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While it’s hard to feel anything even vaguely resembling joy in a month which sees the UK start its senseless and cowardly, withdrawal from the European Union … life goes on!! Our five top distractions for April 2017 features new design and architecture exhibitions in Berlin, New York, Paris, Dessau and Milan. "Otto Bartning (1883–1959). Architect of Social Modernism" at the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany Born in Karlsruhe in 1883 the architect and theoretician Otto Bartning was, and
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For George Orwell nothing heralded spring quite like the re-appearance of toads, emerging from their subterranean hibernation and setting off, once again, on life's great cycle. Our toads are the flurry of new design and architecture exhibitions which open globally every March, as the international museum and gallery community awake from their winter slumber. Our highlights for March 2017, featuring new exhibitions in Bielefeld, Helsinki, Weil am Rhein, Utrecht and Paris "Partners in
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Our picks from the new architecture and design exhibitions opening in February 2017, featuring showcases in Weil am Rhein, Falkenberg, 's-Hertogenbosch, Berlin and Groningen. 5 New Design Exhibitions for February 2017 "Good morrow, Benedick. Why, what's the matter, That you have such a February face, So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?", enquires Don Pedro of Benedick in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Shakespeare gives the impression that Benedick's mood is somehow related to
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Our pick of the new architecture and design exhibitions opening in January 2017, with showcases in Cologne, New York, Rotterdam, Atlanta and Helsinki. 5 New Design Exhibitions for January 2017 Offering as it does the perfect opportunity for reflection on what has been, and the chance to quietly place hope in what may yet come, January is in many respects the perfect month for visiting an architecture or design exhibition: the very best presenting as they do just such a mix, and thus
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Five recommendations for new architecture and design exhibitions opening in December 2016, featuring shows in Copenhagen, Weimar, Nürnberg, London and Munich 5 New Design Exhibitions for December 2016 2016 has been an awful year. As in proper awful. Which my explain the unusually high number of expressionist-esque art exhibitions opening globally in December 2016: the bright colours and supportive warmth and encouragement such works tend to radiate being just what we all need after a tough
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