Brutal Beauty
Violence and Contemporary Design
7 February – 1 May 2016, Marta Herford (Lippold Gallery, 1st floor)
Opening: Sunday, 7 February, at 11:30 a.m.
Whether in political conflicts or conflicts in everyday life – the subject of violence is ever-present. Against the background of international terrorism and the current streams of refugees from war zones, the subject is more topical than ever.
But how do designers deal with violence? What responsibility do they bear, and which possibilities for action do they open up in this highly dynamic process? Marta Herford introduces a whole new generation of designers whose designs and strategies are making violence visible in order to take a stance against the often devastating worldwide developments now and in the future. They are no longer concerned solely with the design of the perfect product, but rather with shaping social processes. As an engine for participation or inclusion, design can thus be understood as the opposite to submission (Vilém Flusser).
The exhibition also points up the dark side of design. Although design is meant to serve humans in a wide variety of ways, if we look more closely, violence and design are like Siamese twins. Because, at the latest in the production stage, a material is – brutally – forced into a particular shape. In addition to this, a lot of product developments have military origins. The ugly face of design is ultimately exposed when things are no longer usable and have to be disposed of.
The Belgian design expert Max Borka (Berlin) serves as an advisor to the Marta team for “Brutal Beauty”, the scenography for the exhibition is designed by Matthias Megyeri (Stuttgart/London).
Participating designers, artists and projecs
Barnaby Barford, Jeremy Bentham, James Bridle, Anthony Burrill/ Ewoudt Boonstra, Jordi Canudas, Paolo Chiasera, Curro Claret, Ray und Charles Eames, Ron From, Dave Hakkens, Elham Seyed Javad, Chris Jordan, Cyrus Kabiru, Ronen Kadushin, Jan Pieter Kaptein, An-Sofie Kesteleyn, Landfillharmonic, Eva Lechner, Ross Lovegrove, Matthias Megyeri, Yael Mer/ Shay Alkalay, Guy Mishaly, Azusa Murakami/ Alexander Groves, George Nelson, Ernesto Oroza, Marijn van der Poll, Michael Sailstorfer, Skateistan, Jair Straschnow/ Bert Kramer/ Gitte Nygaard, Ezri Tarazi, Carolien Vlieger/ Hein van Dam, Tobias Vollmer, Dominic Wilcox u.a.