Before, After and Beyond
Curated by Martino Gamper and Sarah Douglas
7-26 October 2024
11 Mansfield Street, London W1G 9NZ
By kind permission of Maja Hoffmann
Admission free, no appointment needed.
Opening hours:
Frieze week 7-13 October, daily 10 am to 8 pm
14-26 October, Tuesday to Sunday 12 noon – 7 pm
Before, After and Beyond
Before, After & Beyond is Gampers first full London retrospective since his seminal '100 Chairs in 100 Days' in 2007.
Bringing together the many different aspects of his design and craftsmanship and highlighting Gamper's use of design to create interaction.
The exhibition, which is a full transformation of a London house, covers the entire range of Gamper's practice from early one-off experiments to museum projects and industrial products. The installation explores the domesticity of Gamper's work, as well as the processes of assembling, reflecting his motivation to connect people and his interest in the social dimension of furniture.
Photographer : Angus Mill
Martino Gamper & Adam Pogue
Martino Gamper & Adam Pogue
Blunk Space, 11101 CA-1 #105, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956
October 21–December 3, 2023
Blunk Space is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by London-based designer Martino Gamper and LA-based artist Adam Pogue. Each has spent time at JB Blunk’s home and studio in Inverness, CA. Like Blunk, their work is playful, intuitive, and resourceful, investing their intentionally-designed objects with the chance of abstraction. For Pogue and Gamper, the necessity to create something useful while also being creative is a puzzle to be intuitively resolved, just as Blunk believed "the process is the doing, the bringing together.”
While Gamper’s practice includes interiors, textiles, and design objects of all scales and types, one of his foundational projects, 100 Chairs in 100 Days, involved collecting discarded chairs on the streets of London and making one new chair each day from the old. The resulting amalgamations were humorous and thought-provoking, a hodgepodge of seating and questions about seating. Pogue has created his own textile appliqué language, inspired by Korean bojagi and traditional quilting techniques, using textile remnants and vintage fabrics sourced from LA’s Garment District. The resulting artworks are patchworks of playful grids and incidental orthogonals.
"I was interested in how, despite the difference in their materials, Martino and Adam have a similar approach to sourcing materials and to making,” explains Mariah Nielson, Director of the JB Blunk Estate and Blunk Space and curator of the exhibition. “Martino assembles his tables and chairs from discards and off-cuts, and Adam hand stitches salvaged textiles. They're also both continually inspired by my father's intuitive process and use of salvaged materials.”
For this show, both Gamper and Pogue will work without preconceived ideas, making intuitively and allowing the materials at hand to govern the resulting works. Gamper will use salvaged wood from local wood sawyer Evan Shively to produce cutting boards, mirrors and a table; Pogue will make several cushions, a large hanging piece, and two sculptural chairs.
Photographers Credit: ©Chris Grunder
Martino Gamper & Adam Pogue at Blunk Space
Blunk Space, 11101 CA-1 #105, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956
October 21–December 3, 2023
Blunk Space is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by London-based designer Martino Gamper and LA-based artist Adam Pogue. Each has spent time at JB Blunk’s home and studio in Inverness, CA. Like Blunk, their work is playful, intuitive, and resourceful, investing their intentionally-designed objects with the chance of abstraction. For Pogue and Gamper, the necessity to create something useful while also being creative is a puzzle to be intuitively resolved, just as Blunk believed "the process is the doing, the bringing together.”
While Gamper’s practice includes interiors, textiles, and design objects of all scales and types, one of his foundational projects, 100 Chairs in 100 Days, involved collecting discarded chairs on the streets of London and making one new chair each day from the old. The resulting amalgamations were humorous and thought-provoking, a hodgepodge of seating and questions about seating. Pogue has created his own textile appliqué language, inspired by Korean bojagi and traditional quilting techniques, using textile remnants and vintage fabrics sourced from LA’s Garment District. The resulting artworks are patchworks of playful grids and incidental orthogonals.
"I was interested in how, despite the difference in their materials, Martino and Adam have a similar approach to sourcing materials and to making,” explains Mariah Nielson, Director of the JB Blunk Estate and Blunk Space and curator of the exhibition. “Martino assembles his tables and chairs from discards and off-cuts, and Adam hand stitches salvaged textiles. They're also both continually inspired by my father's intuitive process and use of salvaged materials.”
For this show, both Gamper and Pogue will work without preconceived ideas, making intuitively and allowing the materials at hand to govern the resulting works. Gamper will use salvaged wood from local wood sawyer Evan Shively to produce cutting boards, mirrors and a table; Pogue will make several cushions, a large hanging piece, and two sculptural chairs.
Photographers Credit: ©Chris Grunder
"Sitzung" Haus der Kunst
Martino Gamper will be in residence at Haus der Kunst, creating a series of newly designed chairs, a development of his celebrated long-running project “100 Chairs in 100 Days”. During the run of the exhibition, the new chairs will be freely reconfigured by the public and the staff — to gather, to rest, and to play — turning the Mittelhalle into a vibrant, constantly changing social space. The reconfigurations will be based on a series of rules that Gamper will deliver at the beginning of the project, defining a choreography that will transform the appearance of the whole space weekly. Alongside furniture, Gamper will create a new light design that will change the atmosphere of the Mittelhalle from a usually transitory space to one of gathering.
Andrea Lissoni, Artistic Director, Haus der Kunst, said: “The Mittelhalle of Haus der Kunst is an extraordinary space. This collaboration between Martino Gamper and our curatorial and education teams gives us an opportunity to experiment with this important space, inviting everyone to be involved in literally creating their own space.”
Speaking about the project, Martino Gamper said: “For Haus der Kunst, the furniture will be made in a variety of ways including craft and industrial processes, using a huge range of materials. The chairs will be experimental, fit for purpose but imperfect, rather than products they are vehicles to explore seating as a sculptural object.”
The project highlights the path towards new forms of engagement and learning that Haus der Kunst started in 2023. It has been developed in cooperation between Martino Gamper, the curatorial team and the engagement and learning team at Haus der Kunst.
Martino Gamper (b. 1971, Merano, Italy) is internationally recognised for his groundbreaking work “100 Chairs in 100 Days”, which he embarked on in 2006 to systematically collect discarded chairs and to then spend 100 days reconfiguring the design of each one in an attempt to transform its character and/or the way it functions. Gamper’s practice challenges boundaries between design and visual arts. Constantly looking for new ways to engage with and activate design within our everyday lives, Gamper’s work sits across art, design, performance, and curation.
A cooperation between Martino Gamper, the curatorial team and the mediation and education team at Haus der Kunst (Andrea Lissoni, Emma Enderby, Hanns Lennart Wiesner, Camille Latreille). Martino Gamper's "Sitzung" at Haus der Kunst Munich, illuminated by Occhio.
Install images ©Judith Buss
Individual Chair Images ©Frank Stolle
Martino Gamper: I am many moods
Martino Gamper: I am many moods
Anton Kern Gallery, New York
June 7 - August 11, 2023
Recently Martino Gamper has been in a very good mood, making over 700 hooks and vases which form a loose family of functional objects.
This exhibition at Anton Kern is Design in an art gallery.
Form follows function is a principle of design which suggests that the shape of an object should primarily relate to its intended purpose. This is not as limiting as it sounds. Gamper has screwed, drilled, cast, carved, sawed, sanded, printed, extruded, chainsawed, blown, welded, flame/laser/water cut, forged, torched, and torn many materials including wood, metal, glass, steel, plastic, crystals, ceramics, bronze, aluminum, brass, stainless glass, cork, marble, stones, and branches. Once formed, these objects were polished, painted, anodised, plated, powder coated, enameled, sanded, sprayed, sandblasted, heated, and vibrated.
This might sound like a fight between materials, technique, and form; but in fact the mood is positive, the feeling exuberant. The sheer number and variety of hooks and vases creates a poetic frenzy of excited chaos. Between a whittled stick and large cast bronze, the materials and techniques run the gamut between low and high. Here, there is an object for everyone.
INNESTO Salone Del Mobile 2022
Nilufar Depot
Viale Vincenzo
Lancetti, 34
20158 Milano
07/06/2022 - Autumn 2022
Open Monday till Saturday 10:00 - 19:00
Rubbing up the wrong tree
Grafting is used when a gardener wants to grow a new branch onto an established plant. The graft can lead the specimen to generate something very different out of its original form.
The master furniture for this project was acquired by Gamper from antique dealer Adam Hills. Unwanted by the former owner and left to languish like neglected rootstock, the pieces were in poor condition. Once they were safe in the studio, Gamper measured, photographed, disassembled and then digitally re-drew these prototypes long hidden from view in mothballed obscurity.
The discrete original parts subsequently formed a framework for inquiry. He radically adapted them with insertions of flat laser-cut steel implanted into the original hollow tubular legs.
The purity of the original design is fused with these alien circle and arch motifs, giving rise to an experimental language whose incongruous vocabulary gives a vital new voice to these curious and flourishing hybrids.
Musical Shelf by Martino Gamper for Tamra Rojo
Musical Shelf by Martino Gamper for Tamra Rojo
LDF Legacy Project with The American Hardwood Export Council
Made by Benchmark Furniture UK
Sir John Sorrell, Chairman of London Design Festival, invited leaders of London’s cultural institutions to collaborate with some of the world’s most prolific designers to create a ‘Legacy’ piece of design – an object of personal or professional relevance to them.
Each of the pieces – 10 in total – were beautifully crafted in American red oak, an exciting and sustainable hardwood species that grows abundantly in American forests, and were fabricated at Benchmark Furniture in Berkshire. Nine of the pieces, including Gampers, were presented as a group exhibition at the V&A, before they were relocated to the homes or institutions of each of the commissioners.
Gamper created a modular free-standing shelf for storing Tamara Rojo's (Artistic Director of the English National Ballet),record collection.
By turning the shelves at an oblique angle the covers are clearly visible making it easier to find which ever record Tamara may be looking for.
The darker horizontal elements are made of fumed red oak while the vertical ones are covered in a lighter diagonal veneer to create a contrast and emphasise the oblique design.
The 10 commissioners and designers were;
TAMARA ROJO CBE Artistic Director, English National Ballet, with MARTINO GAMPER
ALEX BEARD CBE Chief Executive, Royal Opera House, with TERENCE WOODGATE
AMANDA NEVILL CBE CEO, British Film Institute, with SEBASTIAN COX
HANS ULRICH OBRIST Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries, with NINA TOLSTRUP and JACK MAMA, STUDIOMAMA
SIR IAN BLATCHFORD Director and Chief Executive, Science Museum Group, with MARLÈNE HUISSOUD
IWONA BLAZWICK OBE Director, Whitechapel Gallery, with YAEL MER and SHAY ALKALAY, RAW EDGES
SIR JOHN SORRELL CBE Chairman, London Design Festival, with JULIET QUINTERO, DALLAS-PIERCE-QUINTERO
KWAME KWEI-ARMAH OBE Artistic Director, Young Vic, with TOMOKO AZUMI
DR MARIA BALSHAW CBE Director, Tate, with MAX LAMB
DR TRISTRAM HUNT Director, V&A, with JASPER MORRISON
Photography: Petr Krejci
LDF 2019- Disco Carbonara & Idiosincratico
LDF 2019- Disco Carbonara & Idiosincratico
MARTINO GAMPER
DISCO CARBONARA
Coal Drops Yard,
Stable St,
London, N1C 4DQ
IDIOSINCRATICO
Samsung KX
Coal Drops Yard
King's Cross,
London, N1C 4DQ
September 14, 2019 - September 26, 2019
Hours: Mon Sat 10:00-20:00, Sun 11:00-18:00
Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross will be home to a Festival Commission by Martino Gamper. This one-off site specific installation is a playful temporary addition to the King’s Cross architecture, a false facade with traditional cladding from the Italian Alps.
Inspired by the concept of a Potemkin village- a construction built to deceive others into thinking that a situation is better than it really is. The term comes from stories of a fake portable village built to impress Empress Catherine II by her lover Grigory Potemkin during her journey to Crimea in 1787.
Gamper’s concept is designed as a gateway to Coal Drop’s Yard, with an archway creating a new entrance for visitors to walk through. The temporary structure will have a low environmental impact, with all materials as waste products, recycled or later repurposed.
With thanks to ALPI Wood, Italy.
2019 Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale
2019 Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale
9 May - 15 September 2019
Social Seating: Curated by Jasper Morrison.
Gamper presents- Bi-compo Bench
A social bench made from Wood Plastic Composite.
Jasper Morrison will introduce to the visitors to Fiskars, eighteen designers of his choice, including Martino Gamper. As one could expect from Morrison, the brief for the designer was clear and simple: design and build a bench. The bench is designed to be shared, thus beautifully reflecting the Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale’s message of coexistence.
Founded on the Fiskars river in 1649, the small iron works community is considered the birthplace of Finnish industrialism. The historical buildings in the village, all listed for conservation, and the surrounding biodiverse hardwood forests make the area a unique destination. Currently Fiskars Village is home to some 600 inhabitants, and it is a significant centre for handicrafts in Finland. The village is also a birthplace of the world-famous brand Fiskars, today known for the orange handled scissors, garden tools and various tableware brands as Iittala and Arabia.
Hookaloti
Hookaloti
3 April – 4 May
Preview Wednesday 3 April 6–8pm
Michael Lett
312 Karangahape Road
Cnr K Rd & East St
Auckland 1145
New Zealand
P +64 9 309 7848
contact@michaellett.com
Tuesday–Friday 11am–5pm
Saturday 11am–3pm
Hookaloti presents a playful environment filled with hundreds of wall mounted hooks. The hooks are all functional, yet decorative, designed to be used individually or in clusters, and incredibility idiosyncratic. Made in ceramic, hand-formed glass, recycled plastic, wood, found objects, forged steel and sand cast aluminium, Gamper has piggybacked on various New Zealand workshops of friends and craft studios. This is a project about exploration, invention and collaboration. All the work is informed by the place that it is made, the possibilities and limitations of each studio. The artisanal interests of each host has had huge bearing on what work has been made. The aluminium hooks from Karl Fristch’s Wellington Studio, were carved rapidly from polystyrene and sand cast within minutes. Recycled Christchurch plastics in Rob Upritchard’s studio were shredded, heated and sausage like extrusions were hand formed into plausible hooks. The glass hooks were fabricated in Monmouth Glass studio, Ponsonby, in a single morning. Rather than blowing glass, the artist and Stephen Bradbourne decided to work with the natural inclinations of the material by elongating a glass drop. The ceramic hooks in this show were made in multiple potteries over the last 5 years- Shoal Bay (Great Barrier), Rahu Road Pottery (Paeroa), Mount pottery (Mount Manganui), Nicholas Brandon’s pottery (Kaimata) and Barry Brickell’s Driving Creek Pottery.
Gamper is foremost a wood worker. During his New Zealand trip he made 2 tables out of 40,000 year old swamp Kauri, mined in the 1980’s and sourced as a ‘job lot’ from Kaitaia, carefully conserved by a local woodturner, in Darryl Ward and Katie Lockhart’s Hillcrest garage. ‘Trade Me’ found, 1970’2 NZ manufactured chairs, caught Gamper’s eye because of their mid-century design quality have been transformed into a group of 4 velvet upholstered chairs.
An installation titled Gesamtkunsthandwerk will also be showing across Michael Lett and Ivan Anthony galleries. The title refers to a fusion of art, design and craft, with a focus on the handmade. A continuation of a project by Karl Fritsch, Martino Gamper and Francis Upritchard begun in 2011 at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth, Gesamtkunsthandwerk includes artworks by Nicholas Brandon, Jaime Jenkins, Laurie Steer and Lisa Walker.
FOG Design+Art 2019
Martino Gamper, Francis Upritchard
Anton Kern Gallery
FOG Design+Art 2019
January 17 –20, 2019
Enveloped by India yellow walls, Anton Kern Gallery’s debut booth at FOG Design+Art is the stage for an intricately designed installation of Francis Upritchard’s sculptures, ceramics, and drawings, coupled with Martino Gamper’s furniture. Wife and husband, and frequent collaborators, Upritchard and Gamper bring together contrasting yet complementing approaches to the making of three-dimensional objects.
The couple’s joint presentation at FOG is decidedly inspired by the counter-culture and Nature Boys movements that sprang up in California in the 1940s and 50s, and culminated in the 1967 Summer of Love in San Francisco. In addition, it can be read as an homage to the spirit of legendary sculptor and designer J.B. Blunk, who had built his home and studio in the 1960s near the town of Inverness, CA: exactly where Gamper fabricated the tables, seats and shelves shown at the fair. Combined with Upritchard’s marvelous and eccentric figures, glass and bronze sculptures, as well as watercolor drawings, this collaboration creates a synergetic environment that echoes the spirit of the city.
Round & Square Collection
Round & Square Collection
Brompton Design district
London Design Festival
4 Cromwell Place
SW7 2JN
16 - 24 September 2017
Gamper presents Round & Square, a new collection of studio-made furniture based on an intricate wood joint. All hand-crafted in his workshop in Hackney, they form a home collection that includes chairs, tables, shelves, armchairs and stools/side tables.
www.bromptondesigndistrict.com
www.londondesignfestival.com
Images: Angus Mill
Middle Chair
Martino Gamper- Middle Chair
Pollok House,
Glasgow
05/06/2017—30/07/2017
Preview Sunday 4 June, 2017, 2 - 5 PM
Pollok House,
Pollok Country Park
Glasgow · G43 1AT ·
Mon - Sun: 10 am - 5 pm
‘Middle Chair’ is a project presented by The Modern Institute taking place within Pollok House, which brings together chairs made by Martino Gamper, installed throughout the 18th century stately home.
Replacing several of the chairs in the house’s interior collection, Gamper’s intervention places his contemporary design pieces as a central part of the existing display and function of the publically accessible house. Contrasting the period furnishings, Gamper’s uniquely built chairs are hybridised forms using found pieces of furniture, cut and assembled with new materials. Intended to assume the roles of either display chairs, within the collection exhibits or as chairs for use by invigilators and visitors. Gamper’s chairs can be found as a main part of a room’s display set up, as if part of the originally operational house - a desk chair in The Morning Room, or a dining set around the existing table in The Dining Room. Gamper’s chairs can also be found on the edges of the corridors and rooms, amongst the many not-in-use chairs within the house’s collection, as well part of the current functioning chairs, replacing the stackable modern chairs in daily use.
www.themoderninstitute.com
100 Chairs in 100 Days
City Gallery Wellington
Civic Square, Wellington, New Zealand
08 April - 13 August 2017
Martino Gamper says, 'There is no perfect design and there is no über-design. Objects talk to us personally. Some might be more functional than others, and the emotional attachment is very individual.' Some ten years ago, the London-based, Italian-born furniture designer initiated his project, 100 Chairs in 100 Days. He made a new chair a day for a hundred days by collaging together bits of chairs that he found discarded on the street or in friends’ homes. Blending found stylistic and structural elements, he generated perverse, poetic, and humorous hybrids. The project combined formal and functional questions with sociological and semiological ones. Or, as Gamper put it: ‘What happens to the status and potential of a plastic garden chair when it is upholstered with luxurious yellow suede?’ The project was all about being creative, but within restrictions—being limited to materials at hand and the time available, with the requirement that each new chair be unique. Gamper's ‘three-dimensional sketchbook’ brought him international recognition. The project was exhibited in London in 2007, at the Milan Triennale in 2009, and at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, in 2010. For our show, ninety-nine chairs from the original project were lent by Nina Yashar, of Nilufar Gallery, Milan. While in New Zealand to install the show, Gamper made a new hundredth chair especially for our show.
A project by Martino Gamper
Collection loaned by Nina Yashar - Nilufar Gallery
Graphic Design: Åbäke
Curated for City Gallery, Wellington by Robert Leonard
http://citygallery.org.nz/
No Ordinary Love - Martino Gamper with Friends
SEASON 3, 17 Sep – 20 Jan
SEE••DS
3, Launceston Place, London, W8 5RL
The design of unique pieces and artisanal objects motivates the ongoing and consuming question, “design or art?” Today, the opening of countless galleries enhances the production and stimulates the market for this kind of design.
SEE••DS, a space that has emerged on the scene, placing itself midway between art and design, is treating this debate with conscious levity: on the one hand, hoping to overcome it; on the other, dealing with new possible interpretations and welcoming projects that are provocatively fun. This is the case with the exhibition "NO ORDINARY LOVE – MARTINO GAMPER W/ FRIENDS", which brings about collaborative creation dynamics that are capable of highlighting inconsistencies in the "design system" through the objects that arise from these collaborations.
The experiment started from the workshop aimed at fostering a collective-based project, bringing together a group of designers — Tiago Almeida, Faudet Harrison, Lars Frideen, Max Frommeld and Arno Mathies, Martino Gamper, Gemma Holt, Jochen Holz, Max Lamb, Will Shannon, Silo Studio, Harry Thaler, Bethan Wood — who are already friends, but had never previously worked as a collective.
After having introduced our first rule DAZE OR DOUBLE questioning the importance of the authorship in design and our second rule AUCTION NO AUCTION, putting into evidence the role of fate or randomness in the value of a piece, we would like to reinstate, for the third and final opening of SEASON 3, the primordial link between the production material and the value of a design piece. For SCALE UP AND GIVE IN, we will show a new production of bronze candle sticks made by NO ORDINARY LOVE 'Collective' and each piece's final price will literally depend on its weight.
Taken from the press release.
100 Chairs in 100 Days - RMIT
RMIT Design Hub
Building 100, Corner Victoria and Swanston Streets,
Carlton, Melbourne 3053 Australia
26 Feb 2016 - 09 April 2016
Renowned for his cross-disciplinary and culturally responsive approach to design, London-based Martino Gamper came to major acclaim with 100 Chairs in 100 Days. In this project Gamper collected disused chairs from alleyways and friends’ homes and reassembled them — one per day — into poetic and often humorous forms. Shown in Australia for the first time, 100 Chairs in 100 Days is an experiment in transforming limitations into possibilities. For RMIT Design Hub, Gamper will create a new version of the 100th chair, fabricated within a single day and only using found materials, structures and designs. The exhibition incorporates a workshop or ‘ideas exchange’ where Gamper will discuss his process-driven practice with local invited designers.
Taken from the press release.
A project by Martino Gamper
Collection loaned by Nina Yashar - Nilufar Gallery
Graphic Design: Åbäke
Curated for RMIT Design Hub by Fleur Watson
http://designhub.rmit.edu.au/
Francis Upritchard & Martino Gamper
Anton Kern Gallery
532 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011
January 14 - February 20 2016
Wife and husband and frequent collaborators, Francis Upritchard and Martino Gamper bring together contrasting approaches to the making of three-dimensional objects. Upritchard is a sculptress from New Zealand with an extensive history of museum and gallery exhibitions, and Gamper an Italian designer with a wide and fascinating array of design exhibitions and commissions.
Their first joint exhibition at the gallery will blend sculpture and furniture in such a seamless way that genre or category seems temporarily thrown overboard. Upritchard and Gamper play with ideas of origin and derivation by combining figures, artifacts and pseudo-anthropological objects with newly designed as well as re-appropriated furniture, denying every concept of cultural purity and authenticity. Exhibited together, the works evoke ideas of the Gesamtkunstwerk and of cabinets of curiosities, albeit not in a Baroque palace but rather a contemporary cosmopolitan environment. The exhibition will include figures of varying sizes and materials, bronze dinosaurs, along with tables, chairs and consoles, and an assortment of ceramic bowls, pots, hats, lamps, and ornaments.
Taken from the press release.
www.antonkerngallery.com
Post Forma - British Art Show 8
9 October - 27 October
Leeds Art Gallery,
The Hepworth Wakefield
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle and British Art Show 8 present a new commission by leading designer Martino Gamper.
Post Forma, a major new commission by acclaimed Italian designer Martino Gamper, will open at Leeds Art Gallery on 9 October 2015 (until 11 October), as part of the opening weekend of Hayward Touring’s British Art Show 8 exhibition. Post Forma then move on to be presented at The Hepworth Wakefield (24 – 25 October) and at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (26 – 27 October). The British Art Show continues at Leeds Art Gallery until 10 Jan 2016.
As part of Post Forma the artist will be asking the public to bring along belongings to be renewed rather than thrown away. This new commission is driven by Gamper’s interest in how an object can be transformed or reused and by interactions with the public. This design process will involve the expertise of local craftspeople, who will meet and engage with visitors by providing a service in a public place, hosting workshops to learn new skills and sharing traditions.
A working loom will be located in the sculpture galleries at Leeds Art Gallery, where artisans will work on a daily basis to create a woven wall hanging that will evolve throughout the exhibition period. There will also be demonstrations of design interventions by skilled craftspeople in the gallery, with workshops specialising in book binding, shoe cobbling and chair caning, for the public to learn and contribute to a craft process that transforms repaired objects.
Post Forma has been by commissioned by Yorkshire Festival and Hayward Touring, in partnership with Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle and Arts Council England’s Strategic Touring Fund.
The British Art Show is a landmark event for the visual arts which defines current tendencies and directions in contemporary art, and introduces a new generation of artists to a wider public. British Art Show 8, curated by Anna Colin and Lydia Yee, will take over Leeds Art Gallery (from 9 Oct 2015 –10 Jan 2016). Taken from the press release.
Photography Jerry Hardman-Jones
www.ysculpture.co.uk
www.britishartshow8.com
100 Chairs in 100 Days
MIMOCA, Maragame, Kagawa, Japan
13 Jun 2015 - 23 Sep 2015
Martino Gamper (born 1971 in Italy, resides in London), known for his crossovers between fine art and design, came to major acclaim with 100 Chairs in 100 Days (2007), for which he culled disused chairs from London alleyways and friends' homes and reassembled them one per day into poetic, often humorous forms. Drawing upon the history of furniture yet altogether unique and original improvisations, he has toured 99 chairs around the globe, always creating another 100th chair in each new location. So for this exhibition, he will create a yet-unveiled 100th chair from a find here in Marugame. Working within self-imposed parametres — found materials, structures, designs and a single day — Gamper's 100 chairs showcase his wit and experiments in transforming limitations into elements of possibility. Transcending mere design and function, Gamper's unprecedented methodology lets us glimpse the stories hidden within things. Also on show in the entrance is a collection of vases made by Gamper.
Taken from the press release.
design is a state of mind
Museion, Bolzano
06 Jun - 13 Sep 2015
In 2011 he designed the space of Passage, in 2015 the designer Martino Gamper (Merano, 1971) returns to the Museion as a curator of the exhibition "design is a state of mind."
The project is in cooperation with the Serpentine Galleries, London, (05/03- 21/04/2014) and the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Turin (24.10.14 - 01.03.2015)
design is a state of mind: the exhibition highlights the history of the design objects and their impact on our life with a wide selection of shelving systems from 1930 to the present day. Moving in a range which includes design classics historic, unique pieces, works of industrial design and functional contemporary, recently commissioned or otherwise, will be exhibited projects by Gaetano Pesce, Ettore Sottsass, Ercol, Gio Ponti and IKEA. Each element exhibition will be used to organize and display collections of objects from the personal archives of friends and colleagues of Gamper, along with a wide library of publications on contemporary furniture from all over the world.
For the occasion will also be made of new shelving Michael Marriott and the same Martino Gamper, co-produced by the Serpentine Gallery, Museion and the Pinacoteca Agnelli.
"There is no perfect design and there is no ultra design. The objects speak to us in a personal way. Some should be more functional than others, and the emotional impact they have on us is very individual. The exhibition highlights a very personal way to collect and collect objects, with pieces that tell a story".
Martino Gamper
Taken from the press release.
Photography Luca Meneghel
www.museion.it
design is a state of mind
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
via Nizza 230/103
10126 Torino, It
www.pinacoteca-agnelli.it / www.serpentinegalleries.org / www.museion.it
22 October 2014 – 22 February 2015
Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli is very pleased to announce its presentation of the exhibition design is a state of mind, curated by Martino Gamper.
The project is closely related to the mission of Pinacoteca Agnelli: the study of different ways of collecting and of private collections. It is also inspired by explorations into the practice of accumulation, a concept that has been developed by the artist through many aspects of his work.
The show has been produced in collaboration with the Serpentine Galleries, London (5/3/2014 – 18/5/2014) Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli in Turin (22/10/2014 – 22/02/2015) and Museion in Bolzano (12/06/2015 – 06/09/2015).
design is a state of mind will present a landscape of shelving systems, telling the story of design objects and their impact on our lives.
An extensive display of shelving systems from the 1930s to the present day will form the backbone of the exhibition. Ranging from historic design classics and one-off pieces, to industrial, utilitarian, contemporary and newly commissioned work, the exhibition will include designs by Gaetano Pesce, Ettore Sottsass, Ercol, Gio Ponti and IKEA.
Each display system will also be used to organise and exhibit collections of objects curated from the personal archives of Gamper’s friends and colleagues as well as an extensive library of contemporary furniture manufacturing catalogues from around the world.
"There is no perfect design and there is no über-design. Objects talk to us personally. Some might be more functional than others, and the emotional attachment is very individual. This exhibition will showcase a very personal way of collecting and gathering objects – these are pieces that tell a tale".
– Martino Gamper.
Taken from the press release
In a State of Repair
8 – 13 April 2014
A unique collaboration between designer Martino Gamper, la Rinascente
department store in Milan and London’s Serpentine Galleries
Artisans’ performing hours
10am – 10pm 8 April
10am – 8pm 9 – 11 April
A new collaboration between renowned Italian department store la
Rinascente, designer Martino Gamper and London’s Serpentine Galleries
celebrates the craftsmen, craftswomen, artisans and technicians who repair
the things that break, stop working or go wrong. Launching on the occasion
of Salone Internazionale del Mobile, In a State of Repair explores the
expectations of customer service and continues the story of consumption, a
story that does not necessarily end when a person purchases an object and
leaves the store.
Martino Gamper said:
“As well as celebrating the skills that are sadly hidden from view, I hope this
installation encourages people to keep their belongings rather than discard
them, to improve what they buy rather than throw it away. Ultimately, the aim
is that people will appreciate the transformation of their object through the
process of repair. So, please bring us your broken things and watch them
being repaired in front of your eyes.”
As a designer, Gamper always anticipates how he can improve or repair
something. As part of the installation for la Rinascente, Gamper designs and
curates a series of eight workshop stands dedicated to fixing products,
brought to him by members of the public, free of charge. Situated in front of
and within the eight storefront windows of the Milan branch of the flagship
store, In a State of Repair re-creates the workshops that are normally hidden
from view, revealing what happens when your goods are taken to be repaired.
Each window will be dedicated to the display of different category of repaired
object: accessories, shoes, books, toys, electronics, clothing, chairs and
bicycles. Gamper will develop a set of material and process-based constraints
for each craftsman that means that each repaired object becomes a one-off
piece of design.
Julia Peyton-Jones, Director, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director of
Serpentine Galleries said:
“The Serpentine Galleries continually explore how to present art, architecture
and design in new ways. In a State of Repair represents a unique opportunity
to temporarily transform la Rinascente into an extension of our Galleries.”
Alberto Baldan, CEO of la Rinascente, said:
“la Rinascente is proud to host In a State of Repair, a collaboration that
represents a revolutionary new frontier in customer service. This unique
partnership with Serpentine Galleries and Martino Gamper fits perfectly with
the philosophy of la Rinascente, a department store where every day brings a
unique experience for the shopper.”
Martino Gamper’s design is a state of mind exhibition takes place at the
Serpentine Sackler Gallery until 18 May 2014.
Taken from the press release.
www.rinascente.it
www.serpentinegalleries.org
Period Room
3 - 21 April 2014
Palais De Tokyo, Paris
Steven Claydon, Isabelle Cornaro, Glass Fabrik, Martino Gamper, Elias Guenoun, Anthea Hamilton, Michel Heurtault, Jean-Louis Hurlin, Franck Jalleau, Aude Marie, Janaïna Milheiro, Philippe Millot, Mydriaz, Alexandre Poulaillon, Chloé Quenum, Clément Rodzielski, Atelier Thiery
Organised in the framework of The European Artistic Craft Days, the exhibition Period Room brings together the collaborations of around 20 creators: craftspeople, artists, designer, graphic designer, architect, who have chosen to work together to create this setting composed of works and objects that testify to their respective approaches and to their desire to experiment through their common invention of new forms.
The ‘period room’ is a museum convention that consists in reconstituting an historical space within a room in a museum - reading room, French 18th-century salon, music room - missing paintings, sculptures, furniture, tapestries and other art objects. This mode of presentation shows the supposed coherence of a period to make it possible for the public to imagine it. Very popular from the beginning of the 19th century, these reconstructions were later questioned for their fictitious and unscientific nature. After the war, period rooms were out fashioned by the display of objects shown alone and based on their aesthetics rather than on their perceived context, thus bringing to and end the coexistence of plastic and applied arts within the same space.
Inspired by the period room model, this exhibition substitute to the artificial reconstruction of a historical period the creation of a prospective space and time where daily objects and usages are reassessed.
Period Room is a multidimensional space where the blending of genres occurs: between applied arts and plastic arts, decoration and figuration, function and form, ornament and frame shifting.
The exhibition Period Room has been conceived for the European Artistic Craft Days (4-6 April 2014).
During these 3 days dedicated to the preservation and regeneration of the intangible heritage of crafts know-how, numerous events, exhibitions and workshops opening, and exploring the theme ‘Time of Creation’ are being organised in Europe.
Taken from the press release.
www.palaisdetokyo.com
Chair Lift
8 – 13 April 2014
Showroom Moroso
via Pontaccio 8/10, Milan, It
Martino Gamper & Peter McDonald
Intersections of sensorial density, disembodied chromatic surfaces concretely inscribed in everyday life.
Inside the drawings of Peter McDonald the distinctive marks in the traits of people do not appear: men and women are sensitive entities open to the invisible flow of relationships that permeate space. A loss of appearance which does not generate conformity but, on the contrary, reveals with plain simplicity, unmapped explorative trajectories.
The installation, however, does not suggest a rule or a key to interpretation, but rather offers an example of how to experience the represented projections of a parallel and temporary place. Seated, we find ourselves necessarily involved in a space that resets the distance: we are in the things (part of) the world.
Taken from the press release.
www.moroso.it
Edge of the Seat: The Artist’s Chair
14 March – 14 June 2014
Large Glass
392 Caledonian Road
London N1 1DN
Group show with Phyllida Barlow, Susan Collis, Adam Colton, Dorothy Cross, Jimmie Durham, Martino Gamper, Antony Gormley, Jana Sterbak and Richard Wentworth.
www.largeglass.co.uk
all photography©Alex Delfanne
design is a state of mind
5 March 2014 – 18 May 2014
Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London Uk
www.serpentinegalleries.org
Serpentine Galleries has invited the influential London-based Italian designer Martino Gamper to curate a new exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery. design is a state of mind will present a landscape of shelving systems, telling the story of design objects and their impact on our lives. This is the second major design exhibition staged by the Serpentine, following Design Real curated by Konstantin Grcic in 2009.
Martino Gamper said: “There is no perfect design and there is no über-design. Objects talk to us personally. Some might be more functional than others, and the emotional attachment is very individual. This exhibition will showcase a very personal way of collecting and gathering objects – these are pieces that tell a tale.”
An extensive display of shelving systems from the 1930s to the present day will form the backbone of the exhibition. Ranging from historic design classics and one-off pieces, to industrial, utilitarian, contemporary and newly commissioned work, the exhibition will include designs by Gaetano Pesce, Franco Albini, Ettore Sottsass, Ercol, Gio Ponti and IKEA. Each display system will also be used to organise and exhibit collections of objects curated from the personal archives of Gamper’s friends and colleagues as well as an extensive library of contemporary furniture manufacturing catalogues from around the world. Among the designers whose collections will be displayed are: Enzo Mari; Paul Neale; Max Lamb & Gemma Holt; Jane Dillon; Michael Marriott; Sebastian Bergne; Fabien Cappello; Adam Hills; Michael Anastassiades; Andrew McDonagh & Andreas Schmid; Daniel Eatock and Martino Gamper himself.
Martino Gamper: design is a state of mind is presented in collaboration with Museion, Bolzano, Italy and Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli in Turin and runs concurrently with an expansive exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery by American artist Haim Steinbach. Furthering the Serpentine’s commitment to contemporary design, both exhibitions highlight objects that have made a significant impact on our lives and offer new perspectives on material
culture.
The exhibition is sponsored by renowned Italian department store la Rinascente who have – in collaboration with Serpentine Galleries – commissioned Martino Gamper to conceive a site-specific installation for the arcades of their Milan store. This exciting new commission, In a State of Repair, will be launched at Salone Internazionale del Mobile International furnishing accessories exhibition in April. Further support for the exhibition comes from the design is a state of mind Exhibition Circle and the Italian Cultural Institute, London.
Taken from the press release
Photograph: © 2014 Hugo Glendinning
Trade Show
7 December 2013 – 22 February 2014
Eastside Projects will be closed 22 December – 8 January.
Preview Friday 6 December, 7-9pm
Curated by Kathrin Böhm & Gavin Wade
An Endless Supply, atelier d’architecture autogéréé, Sam Curtis, Valie Export, Field Cycles,
Martino Gamper, Ella Gibbs, Katherine Gibson, Jens Haaning, Christine Hill, Myvillages,
Kate Rich, Bob & Roberta Smith, Barbara Steiner, Apolonija Šušteršič.
‘Trade Show’ is a group exhibition that exercises the function of art to exchange, present and enact
different economic practices and cultures of trade. Over the last decades artists have claimed and
reclaimed trade as a socio-cultural space by producing their own shops, swaps, stalls, deals, exchange centres and distribution systems.
The first trade of ‘Trade Show’ is with the economic geographer Katherine Gibson who is writing an essay in exchange for James Langdon’s redesign of ‘The Economy as an Iceberg’, an illustration she has used in presentations around the world since 2001 to symbolize her feminist critique of political economy that focuses upon the limiting effects of representing economies as dominantly capitalist.
The exhibition presents trade as a universal activity deeply embedded in almost everything we do. Art proposes and enacts forms of trade that remind us of the possibilities and complexities of living in a society where everything must mean something, and everything must be worth something. ‘Trade Show’ contributes to a strong trading culture where roles are changeable, economies are collaborative and the imperative of a not-only-for-profit ethos prevails.
Taken from the press release.
www.t-r-a-d-e-s-h-o-w.org
Tu Casa, mi Casa
9 Nov 2013 - 25 Jan 2014
The Modern Institute
3 Aird's Lane
Glasgow, G1 5HU
www.themoderninstitute.com
The Modern Institute are delighted to present ‘Tu casa, mi casa’ the first presentation in Scotland of the work of Italian designer Martino Gamper.
Gamper’s practice is infused by spontaneity and a refined ease for working with a variety of materials and processes. While incorporating faithfulness to the history of Italian design, Gamper’s work encompasses artisanal ‘one-off’ pieces, industrially produced design, and design for both social and exhibition contexts.
‘Tu casa, mi casa’ addresses Gamper’s interest in the psychosocial connotations of furniture and use of space. Opposed to a typical gallery presentation, where objects appear stark and decontextualised, Gamper has created an environment within which we are welcomed. The gallery is used a hybrid living space, complete with a wood-burning stove, day bed, table, chairs, carpets and lamps. Gamper’s house is a beautiful homage to craft, design, and domestic functionality.
Inspired by the notions of space explored in Le Corbusier’s drawing Elements and determined indeterminate (‘Proposal for a Living Habitat’, c. 1959), ‘Tu casa, mi casa’ presents an open plan area, separated only by room dividers, creating small islands of furniture symbolising rooms. Gamper has incorporated a variety of materials and distinguished techniques to produce his furniture and objects, such as: glass blowing and fusing, woodcarving, cabinet making, carpet embroidery, blacksmithing and wrought iron processes, marquetry, and enamelling. This amalgamation of techniques references both Arts and Crafts, as well as more industrial methods of construction. Central to the exhibition is Gamper’s systematic adaption of existing objects. Sourcing Moroccan carpets; these have been embroidered and re-configured with geometric lines, allowing them to take on a new unification of pattern and form. An essential element within the space is a circular table (‘Fragmental Dinning Table’), made from linoleum, wood board and powder coated steel; the top presenting segments of colour, which resembles a pie-chart formation. Completing this set are six appropriated teak chairs, titled ‘Friends #1-6’, carved into the back of each comprises the sentence: “The Ornaments in this house are the friends who frequent it”. Appropriating this phrase from one found in an antique shop in New Zealand, Gamper uses it to suggest the thematic underpinning of the exhibition.
Presenting a graphical aesthetic and a disparate use of material, method and re-appropriation of objects, ‘Tu casa, mi casa’ is predominantly a space, which encourages social interaction - a space designed to be functional and communal.
Taken from the press release.
ICA Off-Site: A Journey Through London Subculture: 1980s to Now
13 Sep - 20 Oct 2013
The Old Selfridges Hotel, 1 Orchard Street, W1H 6HQ London
A major new project at The Old Selfridges Hotel in London as part of a series of off-site events this summer, A Journey Through London Subculture: 1980s to Now illustrates a perceived thread of creativity between the post-punk era and the present day - a legacy that underpins London's incredible creative potential in the present.
Gilbert & George, John Maybury, House of Beauty & Culture, Tom Dixon, Jeffrey Hinton, Bodymap, St John, Alexander McQueen, Martino Gamper, Julie Verhoeven, Giles Deacon, Charlie Porter, Chisenhale Gallery, Lucky PDF, Vogue Fabrics Nightclub, Sibling, J W Anderson, Bethan Laura Wood, Matthew Darbyshire and Louise Gray are amongst the 60 influential figures from London’s creative scene involved in the project. Taken from the press release
100 Chairs in 100 Days
100 Chairs in 100 Days is travelling again
To
Benaki Museum, Athens, Gr
06 Jun - 28 Jul 2013
www.benaki.gr
Jason Dodge/ Martino Gamper
13/03/2013 - 29/04/2013
American Academy In Rome, It.
This artist-curated exhibition in the AAR Art Gallery and in the Cryptoporticus of the McKim, Mead & White building looks at the everyday world through the work of two artists whose practices are very different but who have in common a fascination with the potential of the Found Object to become something else. American artist Jason Dodge's installations find new narratives in the insignificance and marginality of objects taken from everyday life (gloves, blankets, pipes, lightbulbs, electrical wires). The total work is composed, both by the visible part of the object and by the invisible story surrounding and penetrating it: the detail becomes the mark of a generality bypassing it. Italian artist Martino Gamper has a particular interest in the psycho-social aspects of furniture design, including corners (the multiple emotions provoked by the single right-angled boundary) and underused spaces. His art often reworks unwanted objects through craftsmanship, and the story behind his art involves materials, techniques, people and places, the finished product being a token of all of these things that inhabits the brief interlude between making and using.
Taken from the press release.
www.aarome.org
Martino Gamper is in town!
Everyday Needs
6a Kirk St, Arch Hill, Auckland Nz
Wednesday 13th March
5.30 - 8.30pm
We would like to invite you to meet him. Our showroom will be full of Martino's one off creations, not to mention a limited run of various everyday needs that he has produced especially for your home. Chopping boards, door stops, wooden spoons and book ends!!
www.everyday-needs.com
MONACOPOLIS
19 Jan 2013 - 12 May 2013
The Nouveau Musée National de Monaco
Architecture, Urbanism and Urbanization in Monaco, achievements and projects - 1858-2012
Commissioner: Nathalie Giordano-Rosticher, Chief Curator NMNM
Design: Martino Gamper, Maki Suzuki / Abake, London
MONACOPOLIS analyzes the density of a saturated territory, and explores its many different dimensions. It restores readability to what already exists and re-creates the different layers of an urban development that has proceeded uninterruptedly since the mid-19th century, thanks to a novel overlapping of archives and works little or never seen hitherto. In the absence of any Archives Nationales in Monaco, this exhibition restores to the public the documents and the sources which make it possible to write the history of the country’s architecture. Since a complete saturation of the territory, this latter has been wavering between three tendencies which tally with experimental trends producing projects involving “realistic utopias” : verticality (first additional height, then actual high-rise buildings), excavating the ground, and the creation of man-made lands.
Taken from the press release.
Thanks Domus
www.nmnm.mc
Shop Till You Drop
2012
Kunstverein, since 1817.
Klosterwall 23
20095 Hamburg
The "Arnold on Acid", a special edition of the Arnold Circus stool with color gradients for 'Kunstverein', was originally developed for the Arnold Circus. A small park built on rubble in the Boundary Estate, which was one of the earliest urban planning projects to tackle poverty in the eastern slums of London. The Arnold Circus stool serves as the sites official seating for all events taking place. Due to its shape it is stackable, multi-functional and suitable for indoor and outdoor use. It is no coincidence that "Arnold Circus stool" is a piece of furniture with a social dimension. Gamper often uses existing material, recycled, processed and transformed what once was actually waste. With his project "100 Chairs in 100Days" he made use of discarded or disused chairs and created new seating, dissembling and adding different elements to form a chair again. A plastic garden chair may well meet one of it’s designer colleagues. He responds to the idea of an ideal design by advocating responsibility and respective capabilities and requirements. Accordingly, it’s benches and chairs should not be seen as isolated objects, but rather as places that highlight the fact of being present in a space, and the social implications of that.
Taken from the press release.
www.kunstverein.de
House of Voltaire
17a Adam’s Row, London, W1
21 November – 15 December 2012
Mon – Sat 11am – 7pm / Sun 12 - 6pm
A temporary shop selling a diverse selection of artists’ works, limited editions and original pieces by leading contemporary artists and designers in support of Studio Voltaire. Including glassware & coasters by Martino Gamper.
www.houseofvoltaire.org
Bench Years
Victoria & Albert Museum John Madejski Gardens, London
14 - 23 September 2012
Established & Sons has collaborated with the London Design Festival to create a series of one-off benches to mark 10 years of the festival. The Infinity bench by Martino Gamper has been produced with material supplied by American Hardwood Export Council; thermally modified American red oak,
soft maple, ash, yellow birch and tulipwood.
Watch a short film about the project here
www.establishedandsons.com
www.americanhardwood.org
Photography ©Petr Krejci
METAMORPHOSIS_Behind, After or Beyond
22 June - 09 Sept 2012
HangerBicocca
via Chiese 2, Milano, It
Moroso celebrates its first 60 years in business with two exhibition projects focusing on its iconic products, which have helped write the history of international design.
The first exhibition, METAMORPHOSIS_Behind, After or Beyond, is by the designer Martino Gamper, winner of the 1st Moroso Award for Contemporary Art. Established in collaboration with the Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea of Monfalcone in 2011.
Martino Gamper’s installation will be shown alongside Backstage, an exhibition curated by Patrizia Moroso with Marco Viola.
Taken from the press release.
www.hangarbicocca.org www.moroso.it
Synesthesia
29 Jun - 31 Aug 2012
M+B Gallery
612 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, Us
M+B is pleased to announce SYNESTHESIA, a group exhibition curated by Daniele Balice, co-founder of the Paris gallery BaliceHertling, and Jay Ezra Nayssan.
Participating artists include Michael Anastassiades, Anonymous, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Isabelle Cornaro, Jacopo da Valenza, Lucy Dodd, Thomas Dozol, Paul Dupré-Lafon for Hermès, Terje Ekstrom, Piero Fornasetti, Guido Gambone, Martino Gamper, Eileen Gray, Hadrien Jacquelet, Lisa Jo, Alex Katz, Allison Katz, Antonio Lopez, Stewart MacDougall, Alexander May, MissoniHome, Carlo Mollino, Paul P., Ico Parisi, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Charlotte Perriand, Gaetano Pesce, Pablo Picasso, Gio Ponti, ROLU and Yves Saint Laurent.
Taken from the press release.
www.mbart.com
Photography ©Jeff McLane
Glow Rod Tanning With...
February 22 – March 31, 2012
Giò Marconi / COMCORRöder Pop Up Store, Milan, It
Glow Rod Tanning with .../ COMCORRÖDER
Kerstin Brätsch with Martino Gamper
Adele Röder with Lydia Rodrigues
with
Simultanious Studios
Lucas Knipscher / DAS INSTITUT
www.giomarconi.com
Le Sentiment des Choses
15 Dec 2011 – 26 Feb 2012
Le Plateau, Paris, Fr
Lenka Clayton and Michael Crowe, Isabelle Cornaro, Julien Crépieux, Robert Filliou, Martino Gamper, Ryan Gander, Mark Geffriaud, Ray Johnson, Chitti Kasemkitvatana, Bruno Munari, The Play, Bruno Persat, Pratchaya Phinthong, Chloé Quenum, Clément Rodzielski, Fred Sandback, Mieko Shiomi. Curated by Elodie Royer and Yoann Gourmel
As the first part of a series of exhibitions devised by Elodie Royer and Yoann Gourmel, guest curators for the 2011-2012 season, the group show The Feeling of Things takes as its point of departure the work and spirit of the inventor, artist, designer, writer, illustrator, graphic designer and teacher, Bruno Munari, “a Peter Pan with the calibre of a Leonardo”, to borrow Pierre Restany’s words.
By shifting and developing, in everyday life, his continuous research into the circulation and instability of forms, signs, colors, light, words, and images, he was never ceased to imagination and method, and logical and intuitive inventiveness, within an approach that focused on the essentialness of things. From the early Futurist paintings of the 1930s to his unreadable books, from his useless machines to his talking forks, from his original xerographies to the high-tension structures of the 1990s, Munari played all his life with categories and disciplines – using conspicuously limited means – in an attempt to blend them into a single radical and generous art praxis, urging everyone to develop their own curiosity and creativity.
Taken from the press release.
www.fracidf-leplateau.com
Photography ©Martin Argyroglo
Martino & Friends Christmas Totem
2 Dec 2011 – 31 Jan 2012
Phillips de Pury & Company London Pop-Up Shop, Uk
With works by Dent-De-Leone, Jochem Faudet, Martino Gamper, Gemma Holt, Will Shannon, Harry Thaler, Francis Upritchard, Rob Upritchard
London based designer Martino Gamper has curated a special Martino and Friends section especially for the Phillips de Pury Pop-up Shop. Gamper has made a bespoke shelving unit to display his selection. Highlights from the Martino and Friends section include Francis Upritchard’s hand painted Christmas cards and wrapping paper, jewellery from Gemma Holt and Rob Upritchard, and a set of drinking glass with carafe from Martino Gamper.
Taken from the press release.
www.phillipsdepury.com
Atomi at Nilufar
Salone Del Mobile, Apr to end of May 2011
Nilufar Gallery, Milano, It
ATOMI by Bethan Laura Wood, Studio Makkink & Bey, Marco Ferreri, Barnaba Fornasetti, Martino Gamper, Giacomo Ravagli, Robert Stadler, Joseph Walsh. Edited by Mariuccia Casadio Nilufar presents on Monday, April 11, 2011 at 18.00 A theme show collecting new projects and unique specimens by architects and designers already linked with Nilufar history and activity.
Taken from the press release.
www.nilufar.com
Leather Act
6 – 7 November 2010
De Sede und Martino Gamper, Designers' Saturday, 13, Langenthal, Ch
Playing with Leather in Space – A Leather Act
"Leather Act is a real synergy, the very innovative design skills of an individual and the high quality manufacturing and resources of a company are meeting with a curious and experimental approach".
Martino Gamper.
www.desede.ch
Photography ©Stephan Knecht
Frieze Art Fair
14 – 17 October 2010
Kate MacGarry at Frieze Art Fair, London, Uk
Stand design by Martino Gamper
www.katemacgarry.com
Photography ©Andy Stagg
Book Show
3 Jul – 4 Sep 2010
Eastside Projects, Birmingham, Uk
Nina Beier + Marie Lund, Ulises Carrión, Daniel Eatock, Martino Gamper, Nina Katchadourian, Moritz Kung + Richard Venlet, Kelly Large, John Latham, Fraser Muggeridge Studio, Rollo Press, Katerina Šedá + Radim Peško, Yann Sérandour, Simon Starling, Werkplaats Typografie, Keith Wilson. Curated by James Langdon and Gavin Wade.
‘Book Show’ is an exhibition of artworks, objects and structures that address the physical form of the book. The starting point for the exhibition is Ulises Carrión’s provocative series of aphorisms ‘The New Art of Making Books’ (1975). Carrión was the founder of Other Books and So in Amsterdam, a gallery and bookstore that during its short life (1975 to 1979) became the first major centre for the flourishing international artist-led publishing scene.
Carrión’s text establishes the specific conditions of the book as a display device:
A book is a sequence of spaces. Each of these spaces is perceived at a different moment—a book is also a sequence of moments.
A book is not a case of words, nor a bag of words, nor a bearer of words.
A writer, contrary to the popular opinion, does not write books.
A writer writes texts.
Carrión’s perspective on the form of the book de-emphasises any inherent union between the material form of the book and its printed contents, and implies that each body of material to be made into a book must somehow be addressed to the display conditions that the book offers.
Taken from the press release.
www.eastsideprojects.org
Profusion
19 Jun – 11 Jul 2010
Calke Abbey, Derbyshire, Uk
Anna Barham, Karla Black, Marcel Broodthaers, Lucy Clout, Clem Crosby, Jimmie Durham, Mark Fairnington, Doug Fishbone, Martino Gamper, Roger Hiorns, John Plowman, Daniel Silver, Harald Smykla, Jack Strange. Curated by Sotiris Kyriacou and John Plowman
Beacon Art Project presents 'Profusion', an exhibition inspired by the unique setting of Calke Abbey, a National Trust property in Derbyshire. Hidden away in a hollow within an ancient deer park, Calke's interiors and outbuildings are filled with the accumulation of years of collecting and hoarding by its eccentric and reclusive owners. Containing a diverse selection of household objects, artefacts, precious heirlooms and collections of natural history, Calke is now preserved in a state of atmospheric decline, as it was found when the Trust took it over in 1985.
'Profusion' presents especially commissioned and existing works by twelve acclaimed international artists, exploring themes and ideas pivotal to the exhibition's context. Calke's rambling contents declare their fragility and materiality, emphasising a heightened sense of physicality and entropy. The house is purposely presented in a way that disregards established hierarchies, taxonomies and methods of display, celebrating instead the glorious disarray of a rich diversity of objects and artefacts and their testimony to the passage of time. Calke emphasises multiple viewpoints and possibilities within a framework of interconnectedness. It embraces the tentativeness of imposed categories, highlighting their relativity and debunking presumptions regarding the containment and representation of knowledge.
Taken from the press release.
www.beaconartproject.org
7 Chairs in 7 Days
May – Jun 2010
British Council, London, Uk
Get It Louder was an international exhibition organised by leading Chinese curator Ou Ning. The first edition in 2005 was the most substantial showing ever of contemporary Chinese design in China. For the 2007 sequel Ou Ning invited the British Council and Newbetter to co-curate a collection of British work.
Emily Campbell, former director of Architecture, Design and Fashion at the British Council together with Shumon Basar and Joshua Bolchover curated the UK representation which included 14 artists and designers whose work had not previously been seen in China - Åbäke, Danny Brown, Marloes Ten Bhomer, Sam Buston, Shezad Dawood, Martino Gamper, Neil Rock, Julia Lohmann, Simon Heijdens, Celine Condorelli, Assa Ashuach, D-Fuse and Troika.
Get It Louder opened at the Grandview Mall in Guangzhou and toured to Shanghai and Beijing. During the three month tour the exhibition attracted over 175,000 visitors. On show at the British Council is '7 Chairs in 7 Days' the outcome of Martino Gamper's time in Guangzhou.
Taken from the press release.
www.britishcouncil.org
Exhibition photography ©Matylda Krzykowski Chair photography ©Anna Arca
Learning While Performing, Performing While Learning
28 May – 30 May 2010
Z33, Hasselt, Be
Within the framework of Design by Performance Martino Gamper develops the performance Learning While Performing, Performing While Learning.
From Friday 28 May to Sunday 30 May a performance by designer Martino Gamper (ITA) takes place at Z33 in Hasselt (Belgium). In this performance Gamper will take on the role of an apprentice in a woodturning studio.
Under the professional guidance of the Flemish Woodturning Guild he will submerge himself in this traditional technique. The learning process will be put up as an act, in which the transmission of knowledge is central. The origin of woodturning dates to around 1300BC when the Egyptians first developed the necessary tools for this. The technique has been around for ages and has been perfected by many important civilizations. During this performance he will try his luck at this age-old traditional custom.
Gamper’s practice derives from an abiding interest in the psycho-social aspects of design. Curiosity is also an important aspect of Gamper’s work (100 chairs in 100 days, furniture while you wait, …), as is also the case with Learning While Performing, Performing While Learning.
The performance will be held during the last weekend of the exhibition “Design by Performance”. This exhibition focuses on the increase of performance and performativity in design. Gamper developed this performance especially for Z33 to match with this exhibition.
The performance by Martino Gamper will also coincide with the last day of Borderline, the Cumulus Conference Belgium (May 26-29). This conference wishes to explore and experience the various facets of borderlines and how limits and limitations are overcome. Cumulus is the international association of universities and colleges of art, design and media.
Taken from the press release.
www.z33.be
Photography ©Matylda Krzykowski
Autoprogettazione Revisited
03 – 27 Oct 2009
Architectural Association, London, Uk
Autoprogettazione Revisted is a group exhibition that traces the influence of renowned Italian designer Enzo Mari’s 1970’s project for self-made furniture. Using the AA Gallery as a project space, nine artists and designers were commissioned to respond to Mari’s instruction-based furniture plans with their own set of instructions.
For Mari, the quality and integrity of a piece of work is determined when the shape of an object does not ‘seem’ but simply ‘is’. In a text accompanying the instructions, he writes that 'anyone, apart from factories and traders, can use the designs to make them by themselves'. Seen originally by Mari as a means for the self-fabrication of quality design objects, Autoprogettazione continues today as an expression of open source and collaborative design thinking made topical by a recent proliferation of digital technologies.
Invited artists/designers: Phyllida Barlow, Broussard/Seilles, Martino Gamper, Graham Hudson, Keung Caputo, Lucas Maassen, Joe Pipal
With thanks to: The studio of Enzo Mari; Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, Università degli Studi di Parma; and the Triennale Design Museum, Milano.
Taken from the press release.
www.aaschool.ac.uk
Super Contemporary
3 Jun – 4 Oct 2009
Design Museum, London, Uk
Design Museum has joined forces with Beefeater 24 to celebrate the fearlessly progressive spirit of London's greatest creative minds, past and present. The exhibition was designed by Martino Gamper and graphic design consultancy Bibliothèque, and guest-curated by Daniel Charny.
Taken from the press release.
www.designmuseum.org
Beyond Kiosk - Modes of Multiplication
15 Mar – 13 Sep 2009
Mudam, Luxembourg, Lu
This on-going project, initiated by German publisher and designer Christoph Keller, who founded the publishing company Revolver, is a travelling exhibition focusing on independent publishing in the fields of contemporary art, design and graphic design. It’s starting point is Kiosk, an expending archive, which gathers today over 6.000 publications – artists’ books, catalogues, magazines, videos, audio works – and which travelled to more than twenty institutions all over the world since 2001, including the Frankfurter Kunstverein, Witte de With in Rotterdam, ICA in London and Artists’ Space in New York City. Beyond Kiosk has been thought of as a curated selection from this archive, aiming at showcasing the most relevant examples of independent publishing in contemporary art. It gathers around 700 publications from 250 publishers as varied as Book Works, Dot Dot Dot, Vier5, Printed Matter Inc. and Zédélé Éditions. For each presentation of Beyond Kiosk, a designer or artist is commissioned to develop a new display for the exhibition. Mudam has invited London based designer Martino Gamper, whose recent project 100 Chairs in 100 Days at the London Design Museum in 2007, as well as his participation at Manifesta 7 in 2008, attracted a lot of attention, to imagine the exhibition design.
Taken from the press release.
Curated by Christoph Keller
Exhibition design by Martino Gamper
www.mudam.lu
Photography ©Andres Lejona
Undiszipliniert/ Undisciplined
Sep 11 – Oct 11, 2008
Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, Au
Artists: Werner Feiersinger, Andreas Fogarasi, Martino Gamper, Krüger + Pardeller, Gregor Neuerer, PAUHOF + Walter Niedermayr , Nicole Six & Paul Petritsch
Concept: Doris Krüger and Walter Pardeller
In connection with the Vienna Design Week, organisation of a common symposium with Neigungsgruppe Design, University of Applied Arts Vienna and Kiesler Stiftung Wien
The project focuses on intersection points and addresses the themes of space and spatial design in the light of an expanded and dynamic understanding of space. Above all, the borderline between these disciplines is of interest. In all three of these fields, there are questions about the treatment of space, the relationship between functionality and aesthetics, the usability and the usage, the marketing strategies. However, despite the apparent similarities between these disciplines, they are clearly different in their specific manifestations and answers to such questions.
In the context of an interdisiciplinary project, the common ground will be first be defined to enable concrete reactions from each discipline on the others’ work fields in a subsequent step. The exhibition will ultimately present works developed in the preparation phase as well as the outcome of the experiment. The result will be models, sketches, films, photography, sculptural objects or prototypes and they will all, even simply due to their authorship and development process, oscillate between the disciplines.
Taken from the press release.
www.wuk.at
A Recent History of Writing and Drawing
July 9th – August 31st 2008
Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, Uk
An exhibition by Jürg Lehni and Alex Rich
Furniture by Martino Gamper
'A Recent History of Writing and Drawing' is an interactive exhibition which explores the creative potential of graphic technologies. Conceived by designers Jürg Lehni and Alex Rich, the exhibition sees the ICA’s lower gallery transformed into a workspace where a number of machines, developed to enable writing and drawing, exist. Together these machines present a range of techniques from chalk on board, to holes punched in paper and images projected on screen.
The show on a whole consists of four individual exhibits including, ‘Dots on Demand’, a workstation with a very simple graphic interface which invites visitors to type in their own sentences and then feed a sheet of paper of their choice into the cutter and see their sentences cut out. Visitors will be able to take their own poster home as a souvenir, while copies will also be displayed within the gallery.
Taken from the press release.
www.ica.org
Photography ©Marcus Leith
The Flight of the Dodo
July – August 2008
Project, Dublin, Ie
Tim Braden (UK), Ryan Gander (UK), Martino Gamper (IT), Sven Johne (DE), Irene Kopelman (AR), Eoin McHugh (IE), Francis Upritchard (NZ), Douglas White (UK)
What we share is curiosity, of the world that exists and that which is to come.
The Flight of the Dodo is an eclectic exhibition made up of various artworks and elements that celebrate adventure, delve into factual myths, plunging in and out of notions of the hybrid, evolution, imaginative escapism, the will to survive and ultimate extinction.
The exhibition includes artists who have an eye on the flipside of life, the next steps in evolution and an interest in the endgame. While we read endlessly of global warming and the future migration which will be necessary to survive, there is much debate and angst about the timeframe for this outcome. Some artists focus on the landscape after the fall while others envisage salvation through science and technology. Some artworks let you escape from rational understanding, while others ground you in disaster archaeology of the 20th Century.
Taken from the press release.
www.projectartscentre.ie
