Top Installations at the 2018 London Design Biennale
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London Design Biennale opened on September 4 at Somerset House with 40 countries, cities, and territories bringing their visions of “Emotional States” to London.The second edition of the Biennale builds on the success of the inaugural show in 2016, with tTop Installations at the 2018 London Design Biennale
London Design Biennale opened on September 4 at Somerset House with 40 countries, cities, and territories bringing their visions of “Emotional States” to London.The second edition of the Biennale builds on the success of the inaugural show in 2016, with the world’s most exciting and ambitious designers, innovators, and cultural bodies gathering in London to celebrate design. The works interrogate the ways in which design affects every aspect of our lives, and influences our very being, emotions, and experiences.The immersive installations and exhibits have been curated by some of the most distinguished museums and design institutions in the world — including the V&A; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian; Triennale, Milan; and Qatar Museums.Here are our top installation picks from the Biennale:Flynn Talbot’s “Full Spectrum” for AustraliaTalbot takes inspiration from the legalization of same-sex marriage in Australia to create his rainbow-colored “Full Spectrum,” which is a celebration of love, inspired by a new spirit of openness in his native country. Visitors can touch and move through the rainbow colored light strands that hang from a freestanding structure. India’s “State of Indigo”The Indian pavilion brings to light the dark history of indigo farming evoking the tyranny of the country’s colonial past as well as looking at the present democratization of Indigo from its use in denim to the glow of television blue.Studio INI’s “ANYΠAKOH (Disobedience)” for GreeceStudio INI’s 17-meter long kinetic wall challenges the perception of design and architecture as something static, or emotionally inert. “ANYΠAKOH explores this duality in the nature of disobedience. In the courtyard of Somerset House, visitors will be presented with an innocuous wall. As they step inside, this dynamic skin exes and morphs in response to their movements: they have transgressed a boundary, transitioning from obedient spectator to disobedient actor,” states the press release.Arthur Analts’ “Matter to Matter” for LatviaLatvia’s “Matter to Matter” is a serene meditative space inviting visitors to leave messages on a glass wall that disappear within a few minutes. The installation explores the transience of emotions and the ways in which nature erases the marks we leave on it. David Elia’s “Desmatamento” for BrazilDavid Elia’s “Desmatamento” (or Deforestation) expresses the ecological anger of increasing deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. The installation also shares the beauty and emotional significance of the rainforest to Brazil, through a printed wallpaper that evokes the breathtaking Mata Atlantica rainforest.Nathalie Harb’s “The Silent Room” for LebanonNathalie Harb has conceptualized “The Silent Room” as an urban intervention, proposing public shelters where citizens can disconnect from the city’s constant torrent of information and distraction and enter a state of calm and rest. Visitors climb up the staircase in the perforated brick and timber tower to enter a cocoon-like space in wood on the upper level, which houses “The Silent Room.”Dundee’s “Shpeel”Dundee’s “Shpeel,” a misspelling of the word “spiel,” is a prototype “emotional” tool that uses gaming and virtual technology to help reticent young people to start talking about their mental health. The installation aims to tackle the city’s growing mental health crisis.Turkey’s “housEmotion”In Turkey’s “housEmotion,” Tabanlıoğlu Architects explores the ambiguous question of where we belong in an age of increasingly transient living. “The meaning of home for a person may simply be a smartphone with a full memory. Or it may be something more fundamental to our sense of self,” Tabanlıoğlu said. The pavilion features a semi-transparent structure, which seems to dissolve into the wider environment, and the walls also appear to be illusory.Egypt’s “Modernist Indignation”Egypt’s “Modernist Indignation” mourns the loss of the country’s modernist architecture, highlighted through the prism of the first Arabic design magazine, Al Emara. The pavilion presents a contemporary reinterpretation of a functional 1939 exhibition put on by the editors of Al Emara, which was published between 1939 and 1959. The original exhibition would have explored the magazine’s mission, but now it stands as a testament to a lost culture.The display also includes a video shot in the house of Sayed Karim, the architect who founded London Design Biennale takes place from September 4 to 23, 2018, at Somerset House, London.For more information, visit: http://www.londondesignbiennale.com/Click on the slideshow for a sneak peek at the installations. http://www.blouinartinfo.com Founder: Louise Blouin Read more