ART DESIGN FASHION

In 2021, the building of the Moravian Gallery's Museum of Applied Arts gained a new concept: ART DESIGN FASHION. It heralds that the museum is dedicated not only to design itself but also to fashion and the relationship between design and art. Visitors can expect a permanent exhibition, temporary exhibitions, and new facilities, exclusively prepared for the Moravian Gallery by leading Czech designers. The transformed appearance of the Museum of Applied Arts in Brno represents a metaphorical shop window for Czech designers and their products. This multifaceted concept is unparalleled in the Czech Republic in terms of scope and quality.

During the interior modifications, the gallery primarily focused on incorporating the idea of presenting contemporary designers through their interior element and space designs. The gallery involved Maxim Velčovský, Radek Wohlmuth and studio edit!, Eva Eisler, David Karásek, studio Olgoj Chorchoj, and Marek Štěpán in the preparations.

Current interventions in the exhibition:

Krištof Kintera – Demon of Growth

Along with the reopening of the Brno Museum of Applied Arts, a newly conceived collection of contemporary design and fashion was presented to the public for the first time. As its name 2000+ suggests, the collection maps manifestations in the field of design and fashion from the beginning of the new millennium.

An important impetus for the establishment of the collection was the “pandemic” Open Call: Design for the Moravian Gallery, which took place in 2020. 268 authors, duos, and studios submitted almost six hundred works, from which the expert jury selected the final 68 works. Under the umbrella of 2000+ Fashion, iconic works by Liběna Rochová, a leading Czech designer who donated a large collection of clothing and accessories from the last thirty years of her work to the Moravian Gallery, are also newly presented. Furthermore, the 2000+ collection is complemented by works acquired from the retrospective exhibitions of Maxim Velčovský and studio Olgoj Chorchoj, both of which took place in 2016 and symbolically launched the mapping of contemporary design in the dramaturgy of the Moravian Gallery.

The 2000+ exhibition offers a first cross-sectional view of the collection organized into six categories that describe general tendencies in contemporary design: Nostalgia, Emo, Ars, Fair, Function, and Vision. These categories also form opposites on an imaginary scale. For example, works classified in the Nostalgia group seek their models in the past, draw on childhood memories, and even rescue traditional crafts such as blueprinting. At the opposite pole are works categorized as Vision, which test technologies and materials of the future. Works labeled Emo attack emotions and the abstract ideal of beauty, while those labeled Fair replace aesthetic ideals with slogans such as sustainability, upcycling, or responsibility. In the Ars category, the utility of objects transforms into a self-serving purpose unique to art, and its direct opposite are logically objects whose primary quality is Function.

Postmodern stylistic forms constitute a relatively clearly defined, yet very significant episode in Czechoslovak visual culture. Meanings that postmodern morphology acquired also changed rapidly – from a provocative bearer of free opinion before 1989 to an endorser of the new political and social situation after 1990, to a caricature of pettiness and creative impotence at its end. The meaning and impact of postmodernism are very specific for the Czechoslovak situation, especially because it is part of the mental and factual disintegration of an unreformable socialist regime. It is an accompanying form of the transformation of Czechoslovak society from a totalitarian regime to an open democratic system. Postmodernism in Czechoslovakia can thus be seen as a transitional ritual from communism to the social and economic transformation of the 1990s.

Design is associated with the development of mass production, but also with the fact that people always try to make the products they create comfortable, easy to hold, or easily adjustable. The aim of design is to crown every clever use of a technical discovery, material, or the satisfaction of a new need with a cultivated or inventive shape, color, or surface. In modern times, however, the skill of a craftsman is no longer enough; it is also necessary to work with the designer's idea and vision.

Given the extraordinarily rich industrial history of Brno, Moravia, and the Czech lands, we have decided to tell the story of design precisely through products created in this territory. Let us, therefore, survey a panorama of objects that outline a unique and unrepeatable story of design, which is also substantial enough for us to understand the principles on which the design of things is based.

The exhibition also includes an open depository of glass, ceramics, and porcelain, authored and curated by Maxim Velčovský and Radek Wohlmuth. The architectural studio edit! also participated in the realization.

The depository consists of two rooms in the museum and is conceived as modular furniture that aims to break down ingrained psychological barriers between visitors and the exhibited objects. Display cases overflowing with objects and evoking “classic” depository practice are alternated with airy spaces with only a few solitaires. The principle of selection is not only the division into fine and applied art or dating, but also, for example, technique, technology, color, or theme. In the glass boxes, it is also possible to see small scenic installations or collections of curiosities, such as beer steins. A more intensive visitor experience is achieved through striking colors, optical and symbolic elements of white and black. The concept of the open depository is also based on this bipolar line, where glass represents transparency and ceramics, in contrast, density.

An interactive object called “Cloud” on the terrace of the Museum of Applied Arts, designed by architect Marek Štěpán. The Cloud itself creates and emphasizes the entrance to the museum from the city center. It is designed as a pneumatic cushion with internal overpressure of two layers. These layers form a synclastically curved spatial surface of matte ETFE film in a kidney-shaped plan. The cushion is secured by a net of stainless steel ropes above the upper and below the lower film against excessive deflection due to wind and snow. Inside the cushion are controllable RGB lights that emit an internal glow, metaphysical light atmospheres, or images of moving matrices. In addition to light, the “Cloud” can also emit sounds, which, similar to light, are a response to stimuli from the surroundings or can be part of a deliberately composed audiovisual show. The multimedia activities of the “Cloud” will focus mainly on special occasions and events of the Museum of Applied Arts.

Under the auspices of: