Shiro Kuramata

Design as Poetry
19.10.2013 – 12.01.2014

From 19 October 2013 until 12 January 2014 the work of Shiro Kuramata is shown at the Vitra Design Museum Gallery. Shiro Kuramata (1934 – 1991), one of the most important Japanese designers of the twentieth century, combined the traditional aesthetic of his native culture with the western design principles of Postmodernism. His works are made of industrial materials such as expanded metal mesh, glass and acrylic, bear poetic names like »How High the Moon« and »Miss Blanche« and seem to defy gravity. In the early 1980s, Kuramata became a member of the Memphis movement, later referring to its founder Ettore Sottsass as his »maestro«. He also worked closely with the fashion designer Issey Miyake. The exhibition presents select furniture and objects by Kuratamata, complemented by his at times surreal-seeming design sketches and photographs of his interiors.
Designer of the exhibition is David Saik.