We go in withering July, To ply the hard incessant hoe; Panting beneath the brazen sky, We sweat and grumble, but we go.....1 .....alternatively, skip the panting, sweating and grumbling with a visit to an air-conditioned museum. Our recommendations for escaping the brazen sky of withering July 2021 can be found in Munich, Aalborg, Eisenhüttenstadt, Wrocław and Karlsruhe. And as ever in these times, if you are planning visiting any exhibition please familiarise yourself in advance with the
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In context of the 2013 exhibition Lightopia at the Vitra Design Museum a point of particularly intense illumination, pun intended, was the difference between light and lighting, and that the craft of the lighting designer is to bring a tangible form to an intangible material. With the exhibition Ingo Maurer intim. Design or what? Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum Munich celebrate, and remember, one of Germany's leading designer's of light..... Ingo Maurer intim. Design or what?, Die
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On November 1st 1512 Pope Julius II celebrated the All Saint's Day Mass in the Sistine Chapel. The first public presentation of Michelangelo's frescos, and thereby the opening of a permanent exhibition still on show today. And still attracting a public. And while permanent exhibitions are good and important, for all in allowing an overview and an introduction to a subject, it is those ever changing temporary exhibitions that, should, ideally, allow for new insights and deepening of
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The German town of Boppard sits on two of the most pronounced and prominent curves on the Mittelrhein. Can it be a coincidence that Boppard's most famous son, Michael Thonet, is most popularly known for his curving bentwood chairs? Can it really be a coincidence? Possibly. Almost certainly. What is less contentious is that the flow and meandering of first Michael Thonet's creativity and vigour and subsequently that of the company Thonet has carved its mark not only on the Rhenish Massif
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While the shortlist of exhibitions for this column is regularly long, that for May 2019 was particularly so. And particularly tricky. Perusing it we saw no realistic chance of getting it down to five, all made good claims for inclusion, none deserved to be ignored...... Then we noticed that, with a little bit tweaking, we could get two lists: one featuring those exhibitions directly connected with Bauhaus/Inter-War architecture and design, and one featuring those less directly connected. 💡
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While a Chair of Politics is a long established academic principle, the chair as politics represents a much more contemporary understanding of, not just chairs, but all those artefacts with which we share our world and our daily lives. With the exhibition Friedrich von Borries. Politics of Design. Design of Politics Die Neue Sammlung Munich explore, or perhaps more accurately, give architect and design theorist Friedrich von Borries free hand to explore, the intersection(s) of design and
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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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Can innovation be an end to itself? Are we living in excess? Do things bewilder and inspire us still? Does a museum collection inevitably lose its link to reality as time goes by? What is good design? The exhibition Hella Jongerius & Louise Schouwenberg – Beyond the New at Die Neue Sammlung Munich poses a lot of questions. Questions which needn't necessarily find answers, but which should serve as inspiration and motivation to further questions, and thus a deeper discourse on design. Hella
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