Talks

How to Live?
Johanna Agerman Ross, Arno Brandlhuber and Joseph Grima
in conversation with Jochen Eisenbrand
OPENING TALK (EN) | 7 February 2020
6 pm, Fire Station

To mark the opening of the exhibition »Home Stories: 100 Years, 20 Visionary Interiors«, curator Jochen Eisenbrand will talk with Johanna Agerman Ross, curator at the V&A and founder and director of design journal Disegno, as well as architect Arno Brandlhuber and Joseph Grima, Creative Director of the Design Academy Eindhoven. They will discuss key questions raised by the exhibition and concerning interior design in general: How are we influenced by the interiors we live in? What are the challenges confronting interior designers today? And what are the marks of a good interior, anyway?
Free admission, registration required by 31 January at events@design-museum.de

Ilse Crawford – The Interior as a Collage?
TALK (EN) | 20 February 2020
6:30 pm, Vitra Schaudepot

The British interior designer Ilse Crawford has had a significant influence on contemporary interiors. Her designs famously include »Soho House« in New York and the »Ett Hem« hotel in Stockholm, but she also created concepts for Airbnb. Crawford’s work is characterized by her nuanced use of colours and textiles and an eclectic approach to styles and epochs yielding warm, welcoming environments. In her talk, she will discuss her work as an interior designer.
Free admission

Gae Aulenti and the Myth of Italian Design – Nina Artioli
OPENING TALK (EN) | 28 February 2020
6:30 pm, Vitra Schaudepot

The architect and designer Gae Aulenti (1927–2012) was one of the women who – alongside Cini Boeri and Nanda Vigo – made a significant contribution to the myth of Italian design. Aulenti’s extensive oeuvre includes architecture and design as well as interiors, stage sets, and exhibition concepts. To mark the opening of »Gae Aulenti: A Creative Universe«, the first museum exhibition to be dedicated to her work, Nina Artioli, Aulenti’s granddaughter and director of the Gae Aulenti Archive, will discuss Gae Aulenti’s multifaceted work in a talk ranging from her most significant designs to her working method and design philosophy.
Free admission

Interior Design or DIY? How Interiors Are Made
TALK (DE) | 19 March 2020
6:30 pm, Vitra Schaudepot

Nowadays it is rare for domestic interiors to be designed by a professional – in the era of IKEA and Pinterest we can all be interior design experts. How has this development affected our private interiors? Host Oliver Herwig will speak with interior designers Ester Bruzkus and Peter Greenberg, designer Van Bo Le-Mentzel, who developed the famous »Hartz IV Furniture« series and Enie van de Meiklokjes, presenter of a home makeover reality TV show.
Free admission

Edwin Heathcote – The Meaning of Home
TALK (EN) | 9 April 2020
6:30 pm, Vitra Schaudepot

Edwin Heathcote is the design and architecture critic of the »Financial Times« and author of a number of books about architecture and design. In »The Meaning of Home«, he examines the semiotic history of interior architecture and the symbolism of domestic objects. In his talk, Heathcote will draw on mythology, film, and psychoanalysis while searching for clues to the meaning of the places we live in.
Free admission

Private or Public? Interiors and the Media
TALK (EN) | 30 April 2020
6:30 pm, Vitra Schaudepot

Ranging from glossy magazines like »House Beautiful« or »Apartamento« to social media platforms publicizing the private, media play a central role in the emergence and spread of interior design trends. How do media impact our personal taste? Do they foster variety, or do they serve, mostly, to boost the turnover of the furniture industry? How much influence do »influencers« and bloggers really have on today’s interior design? These are the questions Nacho Alegre, photographer and co-founder of »Apartamento«, Antje Wewer, lifestyle journalist and editor for the »Salon« magazine, and Oliver Jahn, editor-in-chief of the journal »AD«, will discuss. The talk will be hosted by curator Jochen Eisenbrand.
Free admission

Julia Lohmann – Sea Change
OPENING TALK (DE) | 15 May 2020
6 pm, Vitra Design Museum Gallery

Larvae, sheep’s guts, marine algae – German designer Julia Lohmann studies natural materials and uses them in new, surprising objects and installations. As part of the programme accompanying the exhibition »Sea Change« at the Vitra Design Museum Gallery, Lohmann will talk about the oceans as a resource and a challenge, about her research into marine algae, and about the astonishing versatility of this material.
Free admission

Design Salon: When Women Designers Started Wearing Trousers
TALK (EN) | 28 May 2020
6:30 pm, Vitra Schaudepot

All too often the history of design is told as a story with many heroes and no heroines. Many leading figures in design were women, however – including Charlotte Perriand, Lilly Reich, Marianne Brandt, and Gae Aulenti. How can feminine perspectives become meaningful in design without falling prey to the typical gender debates? This is the question discussed by design critics and curators Vera Sacchetti and Matylda Krzykowski, whose »Foreign Legion« initiative highlights the role of women in design, with Tanja Cunz, curator of »Gae Aulenti: A Creative Universe«.
Free admission

Sabine Marcelis – Fashioning the Interior
TALK (EN) | 4 June 2020
6:30 pm, Vitra Schaudepot

The Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis is one of the shooting stars of the design scene. Her poetically purist style is characterized by colours and transparent materials which she combines in pieces of furniture, installations, lamps, and commercial interiors. One of her best-known designs is »Dawn Lights« (2015), a series of lamps for which Marcelis drew inspiration from the natural light of early morning. In her talk, Marcelis will discuss her design approach and her work as a designer of objects and interiors.
Free admission

The Furniture of Donald Judd – Marianne Stockebrand
OPENING TALK (DE) | 3 July 2020
6:30 pm, Vitra Schaudepot

The American artist Donald Judd (1928–1994) was one of the leading protagonists of Minimal Art. In the early 1970s, he began to design furniture, too – first for his house in New York, later for his spacious studio home in Marfa, Texas. The exhibition »Donald Judd: Complex Simplicity« at the Vitra Schaudepot will give insight into Judd’s work in furniture design. On the occasion of its opening, Marianne Stockebrand, the artist’s former partner and director of the Chinati Foundation from 1994 to 2010, will talk about Judd’s furniture design and his art.
Free admission

Adam Nathaniel Furman – Joyful Deviance!
TALK (EN) | 16 July 2020
6:30 pm, Vitra Schaudepot

Breaking with the conventions of interior design, the London based artist and designer Adam Nathaniel Furman describes his spaces as being filled with passion, wit, and queerness. Furman’s opulent, extravagant spaces and objects show the influences of pop and postmodernism as well as integrating colourful folk art elements. Furman will talk about his work and his inspiration and discuss contemporary trends and developments in interior design.
Free admission

Finissage: Tell me how you live and I will tell you who you are!
SPECIAL (DE) | 23 August 2020
6 pm, Fire Station

Our home is the mirror of our personality. Taking this truism literally, we will mark the end of the exhibition »Home Stories« with a playful blend of psychoanalysis, home makeover consultation, and platform debate. Two expert professionals will analyse images of interiors and domestic objects which guests can submit prior to the event or bring along to it. If you are interested in an analysis, please send photos of your home to events@design-museum.de prior to 25 July. Spatial psychologist Uwe Linke and Till Weber, Creative Director VitraHaus, will conduct a strict (or humorous) analysis of your home. To recover from all these Jungian insights, we will conclude the evening with drinks and music.
Free admission