Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec
dal 18/10/2012 al 19/1/2013
Segnalato da
18/10/2012
Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec
Museum of Contemporary Art MCA, Chicago
Bivouac. The Bouroullecs bring high-tech manufacturing ideas to standard furniture and design formats. In this exhibition, the MCA galleries are enlivened and divided by their products, including specially designed pedestals on which the brothers' smaller-scale works are displayed.
Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec: Bivouac is a mid-career exhibition of work by two of the most exciting and innovative designers working today. Born and based in France, the Bouroullecs bring high-tech manufacturing ideas to standard furniture and design formats, such as the communal kitchen table and the basic dining chair, resulting in timeless, straightforward products devoid of trendy gimmicks. The brothers not only design elegant and beautiful objects—chairs, sofas, lamps, tables, and dishware—but they also develop pioneering hybrid forms that defy categorization as they shape space in clever new ways. The title of the show is inspired by this multipurpose hybridity, as a bivouac is a lightweight encampment or shelter that can be adapted to its environment just as Bouroullec products are activated by their end-users and the spaces they inhabit.
Many of the Bouroullecs’ products can be described as “microarchitecture”—items larger than furniture but smaller than architecture. Their award-winning Algues are molded plastic branches that can be snapped together to make translucent and organic screens. Their pressed felt Clouds can be slotted together to make multifaceted, colorful walls or enclosures. In Bivouac, the MCA galleries are enlivened and divided by these products, including specially designed pedestals on which the brothers’ smaller-scale works are displayed. This signature approach to interior space creates a rich and immersive environment in which to view objects large and small from across their career.
The Bouroullecs work with the largest and most influential manufacturers in the design field—including Kartell, Vitra, Ligne Roset, Kvadrat, Cappellini, Magis, and Hans Grohe—to invent innovative solutions for cost saving, sustainability, and the preservation of traditional craft techniques. As such, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec: Bivouac continues MCA Chicago’s longstanding commitment to presenting architecture and design–themed exhibitions that point to relevant issues of our time.
The exhibition is organized by the Centre Pompidou–Metz and is overseen in Chicago by Michael Darling, James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Funding
Lead support for Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec: Bivouac is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris: Caryn and King Harris, Katherine Harris, Toni and Ron Paul, Pam and Joe Szokol, Linda and Bill Friend, and Stephanie and John Harris.
Additional generous support is provided by Robert and Sheryl Bellick, David Herro and Jay Franke, Kvadrat and Maharam, the Cultural Services and the Maison Française of the French Embassy in the United States, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Leslie Bluhm and David Helfand, Ugo Alfano Casati and Casati Gallery, Sara Szold, and Wright.
Image: Installation view, Bivouac, Centre Pompidou-Metz, France. October 7, 2011 - July 30, 2012. Photo © studio Bouroullec
Media Relations
Erin Baldwin
312.397.3828
ebaldwin@mcachicago.org
Karla Loring
312.397.3834
kloring@mcachicago.org
Members’ Preview: Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 7 pm
Museum of Contemporary Art MCA
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