5 New Architecture & Design Exhibitions for May 2024
As all around, certainly all around here in Europe, the world blossoms and blooms into life, as colour and variety and vitality abound, it’s strange to remember that just a few short weeks ago everything was so barren, monochrome, desolate.
Not least in context of the global architecture and design museum community: how hard we had to labour to achieve anything approaching what could justifiably be termed a ‘list’ of new architecture and design exhibitions.
Similarly it’s hard to imagine that in a few short weeks we will once again be in a position of scrubbing around looking for new exhibitions worthy of mention.
But spring and early summer are months of abundance, months where new exhibitions are waiting to be harvested, months to take advantage of while the going is good. We could have published two lists for May 2024, decided however to stay with the one; would however very much encourage you all to visit, at least, two lists worth. If not more. Get your fill while you can.
Our 6 recommendations for new exhibitions opening in May 2024, our starting points for May 2024, take us all to Berlin, Prague, Jyväskylä, Milan, Brussels and Weimar…….
Mimesis. A Living Design at the Centre Pompidou-Metz
In Poetics Aristotle argues poetry arose on account of two intrinsic human instincts: an “instinct for ‘harmony’ and rhythm” and “the instinct of imitation”, as in representation rather than copying, an imitation Aristotle opines is the method via which humans learn, and that “to learn gives the liveliest pleasure”.
Yet while for Aristotle all forms of poetry are “in their general conception modes of imitation”, again as in representation rather than copying, “they differ, however, from one another in three respects – the medium, the objects, the manner or mode of imitation”.1
With the exhibition Mimesis. A Living Design the Centre Pompidou-Metz explores designers as imitators of nature, and the varying, and continually developing, mediums, objects, and manners or modes of that imitation…….
5 New Architecture & Design Exhibitions for November 2020
Back in May we were faced with the decision as to whether to remain with the online exhibition recommendations we’d been carrying throughout the spring, or, given that ever more museums were re-opening, move back offline for our June recommendations.
And decided to move back offline, not least because “viewing an exhibition in a museum is the more satisfying experience, the more rewarding experience, the more enduring experience. And an important experience.”
Ahead of our November recommendations we faced a similar choice. Travel, certainly international travel, is not only becoming increasingly difficult and of questionable responsibility, but in many regions the official advice is not to travel unless absolutely necessary; meaning while most museums are open, they are, in a purely practical sense, inaccessible for many. And so is compiling a list of offline exhibitions a meaningful undertaking? Is such a list sensible? Should we move back to online recommendations?
Yes. Yes. No.
And not just because museums are important cultural spaces, but primarily because most all museums are open……
…..or were while we were writing this. However, the rapidly developing nature of contemporary society meant that just before publishing this post it became clear that two of our five November openings will not be opening in November.
We’ve kept them in the list. Not because we couldn’t change the list, not that we couldn’t have substituted them for two others. We could. We’re smow: quick, uncomplicated solutions is what we do, flexibility and spontaneity are our best friends, there is never a Plan B but always alternative options, no job is too big, no pup is too …. no, hang on, that’s Paw Patrol.
We could have substituted them.
But didn’t see why we should. Every month we scan hundreds of museums and galleries around the globe looking for interesting, relevant, recommendable architecture and design exhibitions, the five we present are those we consider to be the most interesting, relevant, recommendable. And no temporary lockdown closure changes that. And all going well, come December, all five will be open.
And now, returning to where our ready-for-posting text was on Friday morning……
……and also with the reminder that such a recommendations list shouldn’t be understood solely as suggestions of locations to physically visit, but also as an impetus for your own study and research, for voyages of cultural discovery from your own sofa and/or desk. Most museum websites have in-depth descriptions of their exhibitions and the themes therein, often components of the exhibition are available online, and there will, almost always, be a catalogue that goes into more depth and detail than the exhibition; and so if an exhibition interests you, and you physically can’t get to the respective museum, why not use the long autumn and winter evenings to explore on your own.
Our five recommendations for new exhibitions opening in November 2020, and five recommendations for a meaningful use of the long autumn and winter evenings, can be found in Frankfurt, Zürich, Jyväskylä, Oslo and Hamburg.
And as ever in these times, if you do feel comfortable visiting any museum, please familiarise yourself in advance with the current ticketing, entry, safety, hygiene, cloakroom, etc rules and systems. And during your visit please stay safe, stay responsible, and above all, stay curious….
5 Online Architecture & Design Exhibitions for April 2020
The museums may be closed, travel restricted and leaving your home, when possible, unadvised….. but that’s no reason to restrict your cultural uptake, far less neglect the development of your architecture and design understandings.
Or put another way, if you can’t get to the museum….. let the museum come to you.
Five online architecture and design exhibitions and museum collections to explore from your sofa, bed, garden, balcony, wherever…..
5 New Architecture & Design Exhibitions for March 2020
Back in the days of the Roman Republic Martius was the month in which troops mustered in preparation for the coming battle season, to prepare, as it were, to March into war.
Please don’t! The world’s out of control enough as it is!
Rather use the coming spring as your incentive, to (a) make up for some of those New Year’s Resolutions you’ve long forgotten you’d made and (b) to march into a future of new impulses, new understandings, new perspectives, a new world. To march into an architecture and/or design exhibition.
Our five recommendations for new showcases opening in Martius MMXX can be found in Ulm, Gent, Vienna, Kobe and Dresden…..
5 New Architecture & Design Exhibitions for September 2019
Whereas in the natural world spring ushers in new life but once a year, in the design museum world re-awakenings are biannual: a spring spring as curators awake from their winter hibernation and an autumn spring as they awake from their summer dormancy. Both bringing forth not only the promise of growth, energy, of a new esprit, of new experiences, new sensations, but confirming the eternal nature of existence, that we are but a moment on an endless spiralling continuum…….
Our five new stimulations for September 2019 can be found in Berlin, Helsinki, Weil am Rhein, Stockholm and ‘s-Hertogenbosch…….
Echoes – 100 Years in Finnish Design and Architecture @ Felleshus, The Nordic Embassies, Berlin
As any fule kno, an echo requires a surface off which to reflect.
Otherwise it is just shouting into the void.
With the exhibition Echoes – 100 Years in Finnish Design and Architecture at the Felleshus, Berlin, that reflective surface is the traditions, cultures and landscapes of north-east Europe.
5 New Design Exhibitions for August 2017
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 away from an interesting exhibition …. our recommendations for August 2017 with new exhibitions in Zürich, Copenhagen, Moscow and Weimar.
smow blog 2014. A pictorial review: September
Following on from the relative inactivity of August September saw us wind back up towards the 2014 autumn design festival
Alvar Aalto – Second Nature at the Vitra Design Museum
Everyone knows Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto. Everyone knows his flowing, free-formed buildings and his moulded plywood furniture. What
5 New Design Exhibitions for September 2014
The inescapable chill in the morning air and the deep-seated boredom in the eyes of school aged children can only
(smow) blog compact Milan 2014 Special: Artek @ Salone del Mobile
If we’re honest, we really, really, should have seen it coming. We didn’t. Having been acquired in 2013 by Vitra,
(smow) blog Design Calendar: February 3rd 1898 – Happy Birthday Alvar Aalto!
“One of the typical activities in modern architecture has been the construction of chairs and the adoption of new materials
5 New Design Exhibitions for February 2014
Fate may have been hard on February by abstractly depriving it of its rightful quotient of days, taunting it indeed
(smow) blog 2013. A pictorial review: January
January 2013 was, as every January, dominated by IMM Cologne, and all that that entails. In particular IMM Cologne 2013
Vitra Design Museum: Lightopia
“My, my, my, Delilah! Why, why, why, Delilah!”
The morning of Friday September 27th 2013 was one of those misty autumn occasions that cause SANAA’s immense new Vitra Factory Building in Weil am Rhein to merge, almost unseen, with the grey background. Even Herzog & de Meuron’s new Basel Messe complex was reduced to nothing more grand than a continuation of the uncaring monotonous sky. The glitzing, shimmering palace of high summer just the weak shadow of a memory.
And so it was perhaps fitting that the Vitra Design Museum choose this dank September morn to open their latest exhibition, “Lightopia”, an exhibition devoted to light.
For today was a clear warning, in the coming months we will all be in need of a little light.
George Nelson meets Alvar Aalto. Extended Version.
In our post on Vitra’s purchase of the Finnish furniture producer Artek we quoted from a letter George Nelson wrote
Vitra acquire Artek. Eames meets Aalto. Again.
At Design Miami Basel 2013 one of the more impressive presentations was without question the collection of Alvar Aalto furniture
IMM Cologne 2013: Stool 60 by Alvar Aalto at Ungers Archiv für Architekturwissenschaft
In our interview with Michel Charlot about his lamp U-Turn for Belux he told us that “I like it when
Gewerbemuseum Winterthur: Wood Loop – Auf Biegen und Brechen
At the risk of upsetting furniture historians, wood is probably the longest serving material in furniture design. It is also
Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln: From Aalto to Zumthor Furniture by Architects
As tradition demands the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln (MAKK) have organised a furniture themed, special exhibition to coincide with
IMM Cologne 2010: Artek 75 @ Droom/Design Your Room
At IMM Cologne Finnish producer Artek continued their 75th Anniversary celebrations with a small show at Droom/Design Your Room in
(smow)offline: Alvar Aalto at Bauhaus Weimar
While we are enjoying ourselves at the #VitraHaus preview in Weil am Rhein, the good people of Weimar will be