The most comprehensive exhibition of Icelandic contemporary design to date, includes furniture, clothing, lighting, jewelry, architecture, textile, technical innovations, and cuisine. The object of the exhibition is to illuminate the impact of design on our immediate environment and to bring design's multiform expressions to attention.
Icelandic contemporary design
curated by Guorun Lilja Gunnlaugsdottir
The most comprehensive exhibition of Icelandic contemporary design to date, MAGMA
includes furniture, clothing, lighting, jewelry, architecture, textile, technical
innovations, and cuisine. The exhibition opens at Reykjavik Art Museum –
Kjarvalsstadir on 19 May 2007, during the Reykjavik Arts Festival, and will remain
on display through 26 August 2007.
The object of the exhibition is to illuminate the impact of design on our immediate
environment and to bring design’s multiform expressions to attention. Design affects
all of us in diverse ways and often the form and structure of objects harbor a long
and interesting history which can’t be discerned from appearances. MAGMA reflects
on these themes through the design preeminent in Iceland today. The title of the
exhibition refers to the simmering creative energy that characterizes the current
moment in Icelandic design, in both its theoretical and material aspects.
More than eighty of Iceland’s most progressive designers take part in MAGMA. Five
designers have created innovative works especially for the exhibition, ranging from
floor heaters to a dress made out of led. A finely crafted book on Icelandic
contemporary design will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.
The curator of MAGMA, Guorun Lilja Gunnlaugsdottir, is in a unique
position to lead us into the world of contemporary Icelandic design. She is an
internationally acclaimed designer herself and the winner of the 2006 Icelandic
Visual Arts Award.
MAGMA is sponsored by Straumur–Burdarás Investment Bank. The exhibition is a
joint project of The Reykjavik Museum, The Reykjavik Arts Festival, and the Design
Area of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
Opening may 19, 2007
Reykjavik Art Museum
Tryggvagata 17 - Reykjavik