BERLIN DAYZ – Program

This exhibition illustrates the great diversity of designs diverging from the conventional: the work of over 100 key German and European designers, many of them based in Berlin. The exhibition discusses the objects in terms of function, material, construction and content references. The bookshelf, the Persian rug, the easy chair: These generic terms alone trigger associations relating to the structural, decorative and configurative aspects of the objects. This is why designers deliberately subvert their general, conventional understanding to reveal their absurdity. The designs do not only provoke astonishment, but challenge the user to reflect on general expectations and codes of behavior, as well as the context of firmly established notions and traditions. It is these 'breaks with the power of convention' that document the far-reaching changes which we currently witness in all areas of our daily lives and which manifest themselves in key phenomena such as mobility, migration, changing nutritional habits and many more.

The exhibition at RMIT will be complemented by Melbourne designers' MATERIALBYPRODUCT and Rowan Dinning, SCREEN GOWN – subverting conventions of fashion, art, architecture and interiors as we know them.

Accompanying Events

Guests:
Volker Albus has curated this exhibition. He is an architect, designer and Professor of Product Design in Karlsruhe.
Simone Hain is Professor of the History of Architecture in Graz, Austria and specialises in East German and Eastern European architectural history.
Alan Saunders is a journalist and presenter of ABC's Radio National, ByDesign

Presented by RMIT Gallery Melbourne in cooperation with ifa (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations) and Goethe-Institut Australia.