Post Fossil: Excavating 21st Century Creation
A new exhibit exploring how designers use the past to look to the future
Showcasing over 70 international designers, the current exhibit “Post Fossil: Excavating 21st Century Creation” at Tokyo museum 21_21 Design Sight is the upshot of esteemed Dutch trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort‘s examination of the future of design in all of its constituent parts. The content spans techniques, shapes, materials, colors and themes with 140 pieces demonstrating a new way of thinking—using the past to reinvent the future.
The exhibition includes an array of resourcefully creative works, many fusing nature with design like Atelier NL’s “Drawn From Clay” pottery, Joris Laarman’s “Bone Chair” and Peter Marigold‘s man-made chess board. Each artist answers serious questions about meaningful consumption, how to break free of old paradigms and whether less really is more.
Edelkoort selected designers who defy the trend of designing for design’s sake and instead create with “unfettered freedom” as they search for new methods and, arguably more importantly, new tools to design with.
Referencing the Arte Povera movement of the ’60s, Edelkoort predicts the ideas will see a resurgence due to shifts in economics and thinking about sustainability. Tokyo’s 21_21 Design Sight makes the perfect venue to showcase these works as a museum focused on generating design that “sees clearly what is ahead.”
“Post Fossil: Excavating 21st Century Creation” runs through 27 June 2010, check out Tokyo Art Beat for full details.
