mudac is embarking on a fascinating quest: to retrace the history of design in French-speaking Switzerland. More than an exhibition, Archives du Design Romand. What Narratives? offers a platform that will evolve over the course of live discussions with designers, historians, and journalists, to capture the emergence and evolution of design. oio studio, which has been invited to take up a residency, will be experimenting with the possible contributions of artificial intelligence to meet these challenges.
A series of enriching meetings
From industrial design to graphic design, watchmaking, fashion, and interaction design, all these forms have thrived in French-speaking Switzerland, both in terms of creation and transmission. To understand the emergence and evolution of design, and to develop the necessary methodologies, mudac has decided to give the floor to the players involved: designers, historians, and journalists will take part in a range of lectures, interviews, and round table discussions. Staggered over the months of the exhibition, these meetings will be organised around six thematic phases.
Free of charge and open to all, the meetings are aimed at both specialists and amateurs, inviting the public to meet experts such as university directors and teachers (ECAL, HEAD, CEPV, EDHEA, etc.), Alexandra Midal, design historian, Christian Brändle, director of the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich, and Anna Niederhäuser, Head of Design Promotion at the Swiss Federal Office of Culture. On 16 November, members of the public will be able to participate actively in the discussion by bringing along their own design object to be archived, so that together we can reflect on the criteria we need to apply to develop a collection worthy of our collective concerns.
An ever-evolving exhibition platform
More than just an exhibition, Archives du Design Romand offers a platform that will grow as the project progresses. Observations, questions, objects, and documents will be added to the exhibition as the project unfolds, reflecting the evolving and iterative nature of the research. The public will discover the fruits of the discussions that have taken place, while works from the collection will gradually be revealed to echo the topics covered. oio design studio will contribute to the discussions through its Archivives project. Designed as an archiving system, it collects documents and interviews in order to explore, using artificial intelligence, the unprecedented possibilities of what archiving might look like in the future. To feed the archives, Le Curieux and mudac curators interview designers from French-speaking Switzerland.
First steps towards a major project
This is an opportunity to accompany mudac in its reflections on the development of a new department entirely dedicated to design in French-speaking Switzerland, and to grasp the historical, political, social, institutional, and technological implications of this project. Designed as a long-term project, Archives du Design Romand aims to produce, within five years if possible, the first book in a series dedicated to design in French-speaking Switzerland.
Curator | Marco Costantini |
Studio oio residency curatorial office | Scott Longfellow |
Scientific collaborator | Diane Maechler |
Scenography | Magali Conus and Camille Nemethy in collaboration with Cécile + Roger |