5 New Design Exhibitions for January 2015

Nothing scares us quite like January.

It wouldn’t be so bad if convention didn’t insist on the additive progression of the year.

If the number could just remain the same we’d be fine with January.

But no.

Come the first of January comes further confirmation of our inevitable mortality.

Thanks January!

To comfort us, five particularly promising sounding new design and architecture exhibitions opening in January 2015……

“SYSTEM DESIGN. Über 100 Jahre Chaos im Alltag” at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Cologne, Germany

As every diligent schoolboy and/or schoolgirl knows, our world is nothing more than a collection of carefully planned, balanced and integrated systems.

Break the systems and we break our world.

It is therefore little surprise that some of the most important, and indeed most popular, objects in the history of design have been systems: we intrinsically understand systems. For their major winter/spring 2015 exhibition the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Cologne, MAKK, are promising a closer look at the role and importance of systems in design – and so of design systems – as exemplified through works by the likes of, for example, Peter Behrens, Egon Eiermann, Verner Panton, Oswald Mathias Ungers or Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. In fact the only name that appears to be missing from the list of designers represented is that of Fritz Haller. A man who lived systematically. But then Fritz Haller was also overlooked in context of the MAKK’s 2012 exhibition “From Aalto to Zumthor. Furniture by Architects” Which could lead one to the conclusion that the MAKK have “issues” with Fritz Haller. Or possibly with USM…….

SYSTEM DESIGN. Über 100 Jahre Chaos im Alltag opens at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst, An der Rechtschule, 50667 Cologne on Tuesday January 30th and runs until Sunday June 7th.

Workbay Office by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Vitra. Contemporary system thinking for contemporary office spaces

“Noguchi as Photographer: The Jantar Mantars of Northern India” at The Noguchi Museum, New York, USA

Isamu Noguchi is without question the more interesting figures in the story of mid-20th century American furniture design. Because he simply didn’t belong there. He was an artist, a sculptor, aesthete …. and chum of George Nelson. And so talented a designer as he was, and much as we adore his Akari light sculptures and Freeform Sofa, we do believe that it is important to focus more on Noguchi’s artistic canon rather than his design works, for there one finds the true spirit of the man. In 1949 Isamu Noguchi was awarded a fellowship from the Bollingen Foundation and used the associated financial grant to travel through Europe, India and Asia to explore sacred sites and study the local communities relationships with such. From the photographs he took on this trip The Noguchi Museum are presenting an exhibition devoted to the so-called Jantar Mantars, a collection of eighteenth-century astronomical observatories in Delhi and Jaipur. Photography may not have been central to Noguchi’s artistic output but through his photographs one sees how he saw and understood the world and his place in it.

Noguchi as Photographer: The Jantar Mantars of Northern India opens at The Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd Road (at Vernon Boulevard), Long Island City, NY 11106 on Thursday January 8th and runs until Sunday May 31st

Noguchi as Photographer: The Jantar Mantars of Northern India (Photo © and with courtesy of, Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum.)

“Sustainable Shelter: Dwelling Within the Forces of Nature” at the Museum of Design Atlanta, USA

Slowly but surely the Museum of Design Atlanta, MODA, is evolving into one of our favourite museums, even though we have never visited and know next to nothing about it. Following on from their 2014 exhibition “Design for Social Impact” the MODA are presenting “Sustainable Shelter” an exhibition which promises to explore techniques employed by human and non-human animals to construct shelters in extreme environments and the corresponding energy and resource balances and as such offer suggestions for more efficient, resource-sensitive construction – and indeed living – futures.

And that, as ever with MODA exhibitions, is all we know. Still sounds like an exhibition worth visiting.

Sustainable Shelter: Dwelling Within the Forces of Nature opens at the Museum of Design Atlanta, 1315 Peach Tree Street, Atlanta, GA 30309 on Sunday January 18th and runs until Sunday April 5th.

Sustainable Shelter Dwelling Within the Forces of Nature (Photo courtesy of Museum of Design Atlanta)

“Design from the Country of The Potato Eaters – designers meet van Gogh” at Het Noordbrabants Museum, ’s-Hertogenbosch, Holland

Yes we were initially attracted by the title.

And, yes, also by the chance to write about ’s-Hertogenbosch, the only town we are aware of whose name begins with a punctuation mark. A grammatical affectation we firmly believe is far too seldom employed these days.

Fortuitously “Design from the Country of The Potato Eaters” also appears to be a very easy exhibition to recommend. Organised in context of the year long, Holland wide, celebration of the 125th anniversary of Vincent van Gogh’s death – why his death anniversary we’re not sure, especially given the messy nature of his death and the fact he was living in France at the time, but hey an anniversary is an anniversary – “Design from the Country of The Potato Eaters” takes its title from van Gogh’s 1885 painting “The Potato Eaters” and promises to present designs that reflect three central features of van Gogh’s canon: the simple life, farmland and nature. Curated by Eindhoven based design studio Yksi Ontwerp the exhibition promises in addition to works by established Dutch designers such as Piet Hein Eek, Maarten Baas and Studio Job objects by younger design talents.

Design from the Country of The Potato Eaters – designers meet van Gogh opens at Het Noordbrabants Museum, Verwersstraat 41, ’s-Hertogenbosch on Saturday January 24th and runs until Sunday April 26th

Veiled Lady by Erik Klarenbeek (Photo © Benjamin Orgis, courtesy of Het Noordbrabants Museum)

“Postmodernism 1980-1995” at Designmuseo Helsinki, Finland

For their major winter/spring 2015 exhibition the Designmuseo Helsinki are promising an exploration of postmodernism from a Finnish perspective: a perspective which we are certain will be new to most visitors. It certainly is to us.
Focussing not just on design but also looking at architecture, the arts and what the curators call “popular culture” the exhibition aims not only to explain the development and influence of postmodernism in and on Finland but also compare and contrast the political and social conditions of the 1980s and 1990s with those today and so explore in how far contemporary creative philosophies and movements are related to postmodernism.

In addition to presenting works by Finnish talent such as Stefan Lindfors, Leena Luostarinen or Vesa Varrela the exhibition also features contributions from international creatives such as, for example, Aldo Rossi or Philippe Starck.

Postmodernism 1980-1995 opens at Designmuseo, Korkeavuorenkatu 23, 00130 Helsinki on Friday January 30th and runs until Sunday May 17th

Postmodernism 1980-1995 at the Designmuseo Helsinki. Including this chair by Jouko Järvisalo (Photo courtesy of Designmuseo Helsinki)