From July 11, 2013 to March 16, 2014, the city of Saint-Etienne is set to tremble under the feet of visitors coming to discover the exceptional exhibition Histoire des formes du Design at the Cité du Design de Saint-Etienne. A unique retrospective allowing visitors to wander from one movement to another to discover the major evolutions in design, from Hoffman to Breuer and from Jacobsen to Paulin.
The Saint-Étienne Métropole region, with its ever-increasing influence thanks to the Biennale Internationale de Design, has acquired a strong position in this field since the 2000s. Indeed, inspired by the city’s industrial history, the Musée d’Art Moderne began building up a design collection in the 1980s, and today offers a retrospective of considerable scope, not only in terms of numbers, but also in terms of diversity.
Gerrit T. RIETVELD – Red and Blue chair – 1918 – Painted wood – Inv. 78.13.1
© Adagp, Paris
For the exhibition, the museum is offering a collection of over 1,600 objects and 900 drawings, tracing the history of the evolution of design through multiple movements. From furniture to household appliances and audio-visual equipment, the essential reference point is the industrial design of the object “designed to be mass-produced”. Pierre Paulin’s Ribbon Chair and Mathieu Matégot’s table and chair set, for example, will be on show, providing a coherent complement to the historic collection. A multi-disciplinary approach that allows the museum to explore the boundaries between design and art, between modernism and the purity of the object.
“Design – a drawing, a dessein, as it is often called – has the task (and the heavy responsibility) of giving shape to what is to come; through the objects it models, it builds “the cathedral of the future”, in a dialogue with progress and ideals which, while evolving with the times, remains one of the main driving forces in the history of the discipline”, comments Jeanne Brun, curator of the exhibition. A real invitation to travel, then, to discover, beyond the history of design itself, the aspirations and inspirations of the humanist and generous thinkers of tomorrow, who have left their mark on our traditional consumerist societies.
Histoire des formes de demain exhibition – Cité du Design de Saint Étienne – 3, rue Javelin Pagnon 42000 Saint-Étienne, France
For further information: www.citedudesign.com
Cette publication est également disponible en : Français (French)
