Objects of Desire

08.03 → 04.08.2024
Surrealism & Design

mudac presents Objects of Desire, an exhibition by the Vitra Design Museum.

Objects of Desire explores the close dialogue between surreal­ism and design over the last hundred years. From Salvador Dali to Meret Oppen­heim and Iris van Herpen, the exhib­i­tion presents both pion­eer­ing works from the 1930s and contem­por­ary projects. Even today, surreal­ism provides design­ers with a wealth of inspir­a­tion, whether through its fant­astic motifs, its subvers­ive approach, or its interest in the human psyche. Objects of Desire show­cases this abund­ant diversity, bring­ing together design furniture and graphic design, fash­ion, decor­a­tion and photo­graphy.

The vast Objects of Desire exhib­i­tion reveals this fruit­ful dialogue, bring­ing together works by Gae Aulenti, BLESS, Achille Castigli­oni, Gior­gio de Chirico, Le Corbusier, Salvador Dalí, Dunne & Raby, Max Ernst, Ray Eames, Fred­er­ick Kiesler, Shiro Kuramata, Carlo Mollino, Isamu Nogu­chi, Meret Oppen­heim, Man Ray, Iris van Herpen, and many others.

The Surreal­ism

The origins of Surreal­ism can be traced back to André Breton’s Mani­festo of Surreal­ism, which was published in 1924. The move­ment quickly took on an inter­na­tional dimen­sion, draw­ing writers, artists, and film­makers in its wake. The subcon­scious, dreams, obses­sions, chance, and the irra­tional were just some of the sources from which the Surreal­ists drew to create their new artistic real­ity. In the 1930s, the first signs of Surreal­is­m’s influ­ence on the world of design began to be felt, but it was mainly in the 1940s that the trend gained strength and spread to the world of fash­ion, furniture, and photo­graphy, appear­ing on the front cover of magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue.
Even today, Surreal­ism provides design­ers with a wide range of inspir­a­tion, includ­ing motifs drawn from its fant­astic imagery, a subvers­ive approach, and an interest in the human psyche.

The exhib­i­tion Objects of Desire juxta­poses surreal­ist artworks and design objects, reveal­ing fascin­at­ing paral­lels and cross-refer­ences. Repres­ent­at­ive works from the world of design range from the 1930s—Meret Oppen­heim’s Table with Bird’s Feet (1939)—to contem­por­ary works, includ­ing fash­ion creations by Iris van Herpen, objects by Konstantin Grcic, or Odd Matter, as well as crit­ical design projects that ques­tion new tech­no­lo­gies or gender roles in subvers­ive ways. These works demon­strate that design is not just about func­tion or tech­no­logy, but also about the hidden real­ity of objects, our secret dreams, obses­sions, and myth­s—in other words, the surreal.

Curator Dr. Mateo Kries
Assistant curator Tanja Cunz
Assistant Isabelle Schorer
Design of the exhibition EMYL
Graphic design Neo Neo

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