| Diary editor: Riya Patel | riya@icon-magazine.co.uk | ||
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| Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970 – 1990 | Metabolism, the City of the Future | ERRE |
| Victoria and Albert Museum, London | Mori Art Museum, Tokyo | Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz |
| 24 September 2011 – 15 January 2012 | 17 September 2011 – 15 January 2012 | 12 September 2011 – 5 March 2012 |
| The V&A launches a major retrospective on postmodernism that takes a broad look at the contentious cultural movement in all its brash glory. Evolving from an architectural style in the 1970s, postmodernism spread its aesthetic and theoretical influence to everything from photography to sculpture and music video: an explosion of loud fashion, pop colours and bold graphics. www.vam.ac.uk | In the 1960s, modern Japanese architecture found itself in the grip of metabolism – an exciting and revolutionary movement propelled by influential architect Kenzo Tange. Metabolists believed cities and buildings could be designed to act organically, subject to flows of change and growth rather than a fixed plan. Rare drawings, models and archive film footage from the period go on show at MAM this month, as well as 3D graphics that bring to life Tange’s A Plan for Tokyo 1960 and other futuristic visions. www.mori.art.museum | The labyrinth as architectural form and metaphor is the idea behind ERRE, the second major thematic exhibition to be shown at Centre Pompidou-Metz. Taking the labyrinth to be an embodiment of both logic and chaos, the multi-disciplinary group show explores its symbolism in the urban landscape, architecture and contemporary art. Specially commissioned works will be on show alongside pieces by Mona Hatoum, Marcel Duchamp and Thomas Hirschhorn. www.centrepompidou-metz.fr |
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| Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams | Picasso to Koons: Artist as Jeweller | Walter Pichler |
| San Francisco MoMA, San Francisco | Museum of Arts and Design, New York | MAK Centre, Vienna |
| Until 20 February 2012 | 20 September 2011 – 8 January 2012 | 27 September 2011 – 26 February 2012 |
| “Less but better” is Dieter Rams’ maxim. The German industrial designer is known for turning everyday products into items of cult status with his rigorously modern philosophy. As Braun’s lead designer from 1961 to 1995, he produced over 500 original masterpieces: coffee makers, calculators, radios and AV equipment, as well as the timeless 606 Universal Shelving System for Vitsoe (our Icon of the Month). Some 200 of Rams’ sketches, prototypes and products are on show at SFMoMA this month. www.sfmoma.org | MAD New York is staging an exhibition of jewellery by 135 contemporary artists including Anthony Caro, Yoko Ono, Anish Kapoor and Max Ernst. More than 240 of these wearable sculptures will be on display from 20 September, with the purpose of revealing a more personal and intimate side to artists who are best known for their work in other media. Most of the jewellery pieces were given as personal gifts or created as one-offs, adding to their unique value. www.madmuseum.org | Walter Pichler, the visionary artist whose prolific sketches, objects and installations became a major influence for the radical architecture movement in 1960s Austria, is celebrated at MAK Vienna this month. Pichler, whose works blur the boundary between sculpture and architecture, is best known for futuristic designs such as TV Helmet or Portable Living Room (1967), and sculptures like Bewegliche Figur (1981, pictured), which have inspired architects as diverse as Coop Himmelb(l)au, Morphosis and Arata Isozaki. www.mak.at |
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| London Design Festival | Gwangju Design Biennale | Open House London |
| Various venues, London | Jungoui Park, Gwangju | Various venues, London |
| 17-25 September 2011 | Until 23 October 2011 | 17 and 18 September 2011 |
| This year, London Design Festival will add St Paul’s Cathedral to the impressive list of venues it has built up over nine years of celebrating creativity in the capital. The cathedral’s Geometric Staircase (pictured) will house an optical installation by architect John Pawson. Designer Aamu Song’s REDDRESS sounds pretty spectacular too: a dress made with 550m of fabric that is both costume and performance space. Pick up a copy of the Icon Design Trail for the definitive guide to the week’s highlights. www.londondesignfestival.com | The South Korean city of Gwangju will host its fourth design biennale in September, titled Design is Design is Not Design. It’s a call for artists, designers and architects to go back to basics and question long-established concepts in contemporary design. Artistic co-directors Seung H-Sang and Ai Weiwei’s vision will see 300 works brought together under a range of diverse themes. Icon is looking forward to Urban Follies: ten small-scale architectural works along the path of the old city wall. www.gb.or.kr | Each year, Open House London allows us behind the doors of some of the city’s most unique and exciting architecture. There are more than 700 sites on the list this year, including Allies and Morrison’s cathedral-like industrial pumping station at Abbey Mills and Allford Hall Monaghan Morris’s RIBA Award-winning Angel Building. Don’t miss the hidden gem that is 78 South Hill Park (pictured), architect Brian Housden’s eccentric 1960s concrete and glass-brick house filled with original Rietveld furniture. www.londonopenhouse.org |
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| Visual Dialogue: Irving Penn and Issey Miyake | ||
| 21 – 21 Design Sight, Tokyo | ||
| 16 September 2011 - 8 April 2012 | ||
| In the book Irving Penn Regards the Work of Issey Miyake (1999), the renowned Japanese fashion designer claimed: "Penn's photographs allow me to see my own designs." Miyake's creative collaboration with American fashion photographer Penn lasted 13 years and now the extraordinary imagery that came out of their partnership can be seen in the exhibition Visual Dialogue at 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo. www.2121designsight.jp | ||
September Diary
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