The Buzz! —6-15-2021

Design Miami

Design Miami’s biweekly, can't-miss roundup of design world news and inspiration

Welcome to The Buzz, a biweekly roundup of design world news and inspiration for Design Miami’s discerning community of creatives and collectors. Enjoy!

 

RUINS: Encoded Symbols by Roberto Sironi at Carwan Gallery

RUINS: Encoded Symbols by Roberto Sironi at Carwan Gallery. Photo © Giorgos Sfakianakis; courtesy of Carwan Gallery

This month, Carwan Gallery in Athens opened a solo exhibition of recent work by Italian designer Roberto Sironi, recognized for his compelling experimental, research-led practice. Produced in collaboration with esteemed Turin-based design residency program IN Residence and Milanese bronze foundry Fonderia Artistica Battaglia, RUINS features a collection of functional objects of desire that call to mind exquisite ancient Mediterranean architectural fragments. The collection grew out of Sironi’s participation in the IN Residence program last year, which also led to the monograph Roberto Sironi: Encoded Symbols, edited by Barbara Brondi and Marco Rainò of IN Residence and published by Nero Editions. RUINS is on view through the end of August.

 

Modernism Crystallized (Family Affair) at Maria Wettergren

Black Mirror by Boris Berlin and Germans Ermičs, 2020; Sunburst Mirror Beam by Germans Ermičs, 2021. Photo © Jussi Puikkonen; courtesy of Galerie Maria Wettergren

Last week in Paris, Galerie Maria Wettergren opened Modernism Crystallized (Family Affair), a group exhibition of new work by Danish designers Boris Berlin and Daniel Berlin and Latvian designer Germans Ermičs. Made from materials commonly associated with last century's modernists—glass, mirror, stone, wood—the designs in this show create stunning visual effects through interactions with ambient light, color, space, and movement. Modernism Crystallized is on view in the gallery through September.

 

This little family of designers seems to explore simultaneously the modernist vocabulary and its potential collapse with, as leitmotif, order and dissolution; geometric regularity and deformation; clarity and illusion; presence and disappearance. —Maria Wettergren

 

Jean Prouvé Speaks via Galerie Patrick Seguin

Temporary School of Villejuif by Jean Prouvé, 1957. Photo © Galerie Patrick Seguin

This week Monday to Wednesday, Paris-based Galerie Patrick Seguin invites the public to check out its Instagram account to access nine archival audio recordings of legendary architect-designer Jean Prouvé. One of the world’s premiere experts in French mid-century modern design, Seguin has been recovering and collecting Prouvé’s work for decades and has played an unparalleled role in bringing the world’s attention to the French master’s technical and formal genius. Seguin now brings us Prouvé's voice, discussing his vision in his own words.

 

Bonies at Galerie VIVID

Bonies: Concrete Art 1965-2021, currently on view at Galerie VIVID and accompanied by a new monograph on the Dutch Concrete artist. Photo © Galerie VIVID

Now through mid-August, Rotterdam’s Galerie VIVID is hosting an exhibition of large-scale, important paintings, sculptures, and textiles by Bob Bonies. The venerable Dutch artist’s abstract investigations into form and color span 60 years and have had tremendous influence on conceptual art in the Netherlands. The show coincides with a major Bonies retrospective at Kunstmuseum Den Haag. While planning the show during lockdown over the last year, the gallery was able to produce a 304-page monograph, which launched at the opening over the weekend.

 

Fashion, Culture, Futures Symposium at Cooper-Hewitt

Cooper Hewitt's Fashion, Culture, Futures Symposium was inspired by the museum's 2020 landmark Willi Smith Exhibition.| Installation view of Willi Smith: Street Couture at the Cooper-Hewitt. Photo: Ann Sunwoo © Smithsonian Institution

On June 17th and October 21st, New York’s Cooper-Hewitt Museum is hosting Fashion, Culture, Futures: African American Ingenuity, Activism, and Storytelling, a two-part virtual symposium co-organized by Cooper-Hewitt and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Both programs bring together academics, designers, critics, models, and activists to share new perspectives on the relationship between fashion and the African American experience. Topics range from African Americans in global fashion to LGBTQ+ influences on fashion, modeling during and after segregation, the fashion collections at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and beyond. What a fantastic way to mark the re-opening of America’s national design museum, shining a much deserved light on how Black creatives have long led innovation and change within the too often exclusionary fashion industry.

 

Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life at Design Museum London

Charlotte Perriand on the B306 Chaise Longue Basculante, designed by Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand, and Pierre Jeanneret in 1929. Photo © AChP/ © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2021

The much anticipated Charlotte Perriand retrospective opens this week at Design Museum London, offering insights into this giant of French design’s journey from modernist machine aesthetics to her adoption of natural forms; from her achievements in modular furniture to her completion of various major architectural projects. Curated by Justin McGuirk and Esme Hawes of the Design Museum, along with noted Perriand experts Pernette Perriand (Charlotte's daughter) and Jacques Barsac, the show features an array of original furniture, photography, and personal notebooks. But we’re especially excited to see the large-scale reconstructions of some of Perriand’s most famous interiors.

 

“Better to spend a day in the sun than to spend it dusting our useless objects.” –Charlotte Perriand

 

Design Parade Hyères & Design Parade Toulon

Flying Carpet Armchair by Ettore Sottsass, 1974; from the Centre Pompidou collection; on view now at Design Parade Toulon. Photo © Adagp, Paris; Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Philippe Migeat/Dist. RMN-GP

Every summer in Provence, contemporary art center Villa Noailles presents Design Parade, a festival in two picturesque locations: one dedicated to design objects and set within a 1920s modernist house designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens in Hyères; the other focused on interior design and sited across multiple venues in the port city of Toulon. At both, you’re always sure to find an exciting array of emerging design talent. This year in Hyères, the 15th edition of the event, you’ll also find a site-specific project from designer Constance Guisset. Toulon, meanwhile, offers an installation from Studio KO, as well as Futurissimo, an exhibition of Italian design from the Centre Pompidou collection, curated by Marie-Ange Brayer and scenographied by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez.

 

Let's Talk Diversity for World Industrial Design Day 2021

Photo © World Design Organization

June 29th is World Industrial Design Day! Launched in 2007 by the World Design Organization, World Industrial Design Day champions the power of design to strengthen economic, social, cultural, and environmental development globally. To mark the day this year, the World Design Organization is hosting Let's Talk: Diversity, a 24-hour virtual event featuring conversations with international designers about their personal and professional experiences with issues of representation. The livestream can be accessed on Facebook starting June 28th at 8pm EDT.

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