13 Jul 2012

DESTRØY DESIGN – Modern Living will open in Taipei

FRAC (Fonds Regional d'Art Contemporain) Nord-Pas de Calais is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition entitled DESTRØY DESIGN – Modern Living, which opens at Taipei Fine Arts Museum on 14 July 2012. This is the second version of our successful exhibition project DESTRØY DESIGN, which has toured four venues across Europe (Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, The Netherlands, and France).

FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais is an institution dedicated to contemporary art, located in Dunkirk, France. Over the last 25 years, it has especially focused on the connection between design and experimental contemporary art because of a wish to, among other things, create a debate about the influence of art, design and objects on our everyday lives. DESTRØY DESIGN – Modern Living is an analysis of the transformations we can witness in our contemporary society, our cities or our private housing—a statement about the way we live today, here and now.

DESTRØY DESIGN – Modern Living consists of 10 chapters: Destroy, Interiors, Arte Povera, Wooden Sculpture, Italian Techno, Classics, Flexible/Modules, Objects, Droog Design, Glass. It features over 100 artworks produced by 45 international artists and designers over the last 40 years, which all belong to the collection of FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais.

This show includes Et la chambre orange (And the orange bedroom), the large-scale installation by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Untitled (Infinity Pan), a glass work by Rirkrit Tiravanija and The Djinn chair by Olivier Mourgue, renowned furniture used in the science-fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick. This is the first presentation in Asia and the exhibition venue is specifically designed for this project.

DESTRØY DESIGN – Modern Living purports to offer an analysis of this unique approach of two different but related fields: the exhibition concentrates on the complex relationship between the consumption-based star-status of contemporary designers and artists, and questions the constantly changing position and importance of the object in today's industrialized world.

It also investigates the exclusive quality of art works and the functionality of design objects—often with a sense of humour as when the artists included in the exhibition comment, destroy, recreate, or question famous design objects. In several instances the limits between artwork and utility item seem to be erased, and the notions about many of the utility items will be turned upside down.

Having combined various contexts from modern art to contemporary ideologies, the artworks to be exhibited will unveil how design and art have interpreted, influenced, and co-existed in our way of life today in many layers. Unlike the word 'contemporary,' the word 'modern' carries extra significance, embracing the complexity of modernism, post-modernism, and novel trends. All creators have specific personal approaches on what we could define as 'modern living.'

Participant artists include: Barbara Visser, Angela de la Cruz, Gabriel Sierra, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Walead Besthy, Rosemarie Trockel, François Hers, Konstantin Grcic, Marc Newson, Liam Gillick, Achille Castiglioni, Ettore Sottsass, Andrée Putman, Verner Panton, Olivier Mourgue, Nemo, Martin Szekely, Maarten van Severen, Joe Colombo, Claude Courtecuisse, Matali Crasset, Denis Santachiara, Jurgen Bey, Joris Laarman, Tord Boontje, Hella Jongerius, Marcel Wanders, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Tobias Rehberger amongst others.

Opening events at Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Lecture on Sat, 14 July, 16–17:30 (Free)
Panellists: Hilde Teerlinck, Director at FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, Curator of DESTRØY DESIGN – Modern Living.
Sayoko Nakahara, H+F Curatorial Grant at FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, Assistant Curator of DESTRØY DESIGN – Modern Living.

Special thanks to Bureau Français de Taipei