Press

In line with its committed approach, mudac’s upcoming programme starting in September 2024
will feature two new exhibitions, We Will Survive and Archives du Design Romand, focusing on contemporary issues. In March 2025, mudac will inaugurate the second Solar Biennale with his project entitled Soleil·s, which will combine exhibitions, residencies, cultural outreach activities and events.

Can miracles be the subject of a design project? For Milan Design Week 2024, mudac will present a project by designer Felipe Ribon at the House of Switzerland. Entitled Back to the Source, it investigates stories, rituals, and customs that are associated with holy sources. Visitors are invited to experience a little magic and handle objects designed to enhance and facilitate the use of sacred water in contemporary rituals.

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Objects of Desire, an exhibition by the Vitra Design Museum that explores the close dialogue between Surrealism and design over the last hundred years. From Salvador Dalí to Meret Oppenheim and Iris van Herpen, the exhibition features both pioneering works from the 1930s and contemporary projects.

The Alchemy exhibition will take visitors back to the origins of mudac’s contemporary glass art collection, now the largest in Europe. Glass works by Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, and Max Ernst trace the links between the history of the collection and the surrealist movement. Alchemy will also bring together contemporary works—some displayed for the first time—that attest to the legacy of the movement among artists.

Following the vacancy at the helm of mudac – museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts on 1 July 2023, Marco Costantini, then acting director of the institution, agreed to take over as interim director. He has now been appointed director with effect 1 January 2024.

mudac presents Space is the place, a programme that focuses on the complex relationship between the cosmos and our planet. Bringing together the work of designers, artists and science fiction writers, as well as a wide range of stakeholders in these issues, the programme includes two exhibitions, three publications and a series of events.

mudac is present at London Design Biennale on the theme of “The Global Game : Remapping Collaborations”. Marking its first participation to the biennale and debuting under the new direction of Beatrice Leanza who took the helm of the institution in January 2023, mudac reveals a glimpse of its upcoming Fall program, fully dedicated to the relation between our planet earth and the cosmos.

This pioneering exhibition offers a different look at design in Lebanon (1943-2023). From Beirut’s scene to the creative, community oriented Minjara project in Tripoli, design is a privileged actor and witness of this constantly changing country.

From Mai-Thu Perret’s ceramic octopus to Philippe Starck’s famous citrus squeezer, unusual pairings offer a fresh perspective on the collection, covering areas such as design, glass art, ceramics, graphic arts, and jewelry.

Marking its first participation to the Milanese kermess and debuting under the new direction of Beatrice Leanza who took the helm of the institution in January 2023, mudac is presenting projects that offer insights into its future programs, research agendas, and collaborations – to be discovered at Dropcity and House of Switzerland.

In October 2022, after its inaugural exhibitions, mudac will feature its first major exhibition A Chair and You, occupying the entirety of the new exhibition halls in the heart of Plateforme 10.

The mudac will have the privilege of revealing to the public for the first time the collection of Thierry Barbier-Mueller, one of the largest private collections in the world of chairs by artists, designers and architects, in a scenography designed by Robert Wilson.

The fourth issue of RADDAR, the annual journal of design research co-edited by mudac and T&P Work Unit, is now available. This new issue exclusively comprises texts written by designers. The theme addressed, forgery or that which is fake, is thus anchored in practice: the creators refer to their ongoing research, their investigations and their experiences in the face of the fabrication and falsification of reality.

Plateforme 10 will open on 18 and 19 June 2022 and inaugurate the new Photo Elysée and mudac museum building at the same time. After the opening of the MCBA in 2019, the Lausanne Arts district is now complete and ready to welcome the public. To celebrate this event, the three cantonal museums on the site are launching their inaugural exhibitions TRAIN ZUG TRENO TREN.

Press release (FR)

Let’s meet at the station is part of the inaugural theme TRAIN ZUG TRENO TREN put forward by the three museums of Plateforme 10. It is the first exhibition at mudac in its new building, alongside the Listening to the Earth exhibition.

For the first exhibition of works from its collection in its new building, mudac is echoing a fundamental message.  Listening to the Earth showcases creations that resonate with climate challenges, addressing themes such as telluric forces, melting glaciers, the use of natural resources, upcycling, the genetic modification of seeds, forest fires and the decline in insect populations.

The third issue of RADDAR, the annual journal of design research co-edited by mudac and T&P Work Unit, is now available. After having explored function and interior design, this new issue tackles the politics of design.

Between the laying of the foundation stone and the inauguration of the building, more than three years have passed to construct this new building housing Photo Elysée and the mudac. During the handover ceremony and the subsequent festivities from November 4 to 7, 2021, the public and the authorities will be able to discover the premises for the first time and symbolically take possession of the place before the official opening scheduled for 2022.

In the heart of the Plateforme 10 arts district, the public will get to discover a genuinely “enhanced” mudac from June 2022.
Driven by a new scientific and cultural project, these changes reflect the values on which the emblematic design museum is founded, embodying its boldness, its multiplicity and its deep roots on the historical and contemporary design scene.