London Design Biennale and Eureka 2023

Eclectic exhibition at Somerset House for this bienniale design show.

The theme of the show was international collaboration and all the projects, presented by countries, organisations and universities, highlighted global issues or work with other organisations around the world.  Other themes which seemed to grow out of the exhibits were response to crisis, aging and weaving as a metaphor.

I very quickly became annoyed by the convoluted commentaries on some of the exhibits, many of which were verging on incomprehensible. An example would be "living collective of initiatives". I understand that some may have originally by people for whom English isn’t the first language but could someone please read them for sense plus cut out the academic, philosophical twaddle. Just tell me the problem you are addressing and its solution in simple language.

That said there were some fascinating displays. I loved these sheep stools from the Japanese room on rural life. Also a chair designed for prisons which can be used either way up to give different heights of seat or to create a desk.

I was moved by the fabric and paper tube partition system which had been used in many refugee situations to divide space in large areas to give personal space and dignity. Also a project by a Polish initiative to send disused windows to Ukraine which has also been taken up in London.

My favourite piece was a video by Kingston University based on the archives of the carpet maker, Stoddard Templeton, looking at how carpets were made then widening the theme to how the highly floral pieces gave the idea of walking in a garden based on ideas from Eastern carpets and how they used materials from all over the world and in turn exported around the world thereby exploring global reach.

Closed 25 June 2023


 

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