IDEAS TAKING SHAPE

The exhibition “Ideas Taking Shape” honours Alexander von Vegesack’s work and collection on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Boisbuchet

Design is at work wherever man creates something for a specific purpose. This form-giving never only concerns functional use, but always has an influence on economic efficiency, on the environment and, last but not least, on people’s well-being and culture. Design can work on the smallest scale, for example in microelectronics or genetic engineering, or on a large scale, as in agriculture or urban development. But nothing we design lasts forever, because it already changes in use and one day we repair, improve or dispose of it. So design has a material and spatial, a cultural and social, and a temporal dimension.

The fact that we understand design today as such a comprehensive and complex discipline is also thanks to Alexander von Vegesack, a pioneer of design education. After conducting groundbreaking research, publications, and exhibitions on bentwood and tubular steel furniture in Europe and the USA, he co-founded the Vitra Design Museum in Germany in 1989, which he turned into an institution of worldwide significance. From the very beginning, he introduced the experience of design practice in the context of workshops into the programme of this museum, and it was at the same time his motivation to make the Domaine de Boisbuchet in the southwest of France a centre for the mediation of design and architecture as building blocks of our environment.

Alexander von Vegesack’s life’s work is to inspire people, and design as the art of the useful is for him only the most natural means to this end. His collection has always been an important medium for this and testifies to the coherence of all his projects of practice, theory, experiment and transmission. Objects may find their place in the collection as a find from a journey, as the result of a workshop or as a purchase for an exhibition. However, every selection of an object is ultimately determined by two criteria: Alexander von Vegesack’s fascination for its beauty as an immediate expression of efficiency and the potential he discovers in it to awaken in others their enthusiasm and questions.

The exhibition “Ideas Taking Shape” honours Alexander von Vegesack’s work and collection on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Boisbuchet as an educational institution that is unique in the world of design. For this purpose, some 150 objects have been selected and divided into 14 themes that represent the character of the collection and at the same time trace Alexander von Vegesack’s life and work. The exhibition, which can be seen from 12 June to 25 September 2021 in the château of the Domaine de Boisbuchet, is accompanied by an extensive catalogue with texts in French and German, as well as a rich accompanying programme with lectures and special events in which contemporary designers present their latest works.

Images Pauline Aubry © CIRECA

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