Program 2017

Aldo Bakker. PAUSE Lausanne08.02 – 30.04.17

Carte blanche to David Bielander08.02 – 30.04.17

Mirror Mirror31.05 – 01.10.17

Carte blanche to Wieki Somers25.10.17 – 11.02.18

François Daireaux. Blow Bangles. Million Bangles.25.10.17 – 11.02.18

Aldo Bakker. PAUSE Lausanne08.02 – 30.04.17

Over the last thirty years, self-taught designer Aldo Bakker (NL, 1971) has built up a radical body of work. It is driven by painstaking and applied research into form, and is very personal and often unclassifiable in its stylistic vocabu-lary.This will be the first time that his work is exhibited in Switzerland ; it will be staged as if in a fixed landscape, with his studio involved in guaranteeing its concept and realisation. Although Aldo Bakker has been producing a wide range of objects – one-offs and limited editions next to working for renowned companies like Karakter and Georg Jensen (DN), Puiforcat and Sèvres (FR) and Swarovski (AU) – the actual impact of his oeuvre is not rela-ted to numbers. The quality of the works he has drawn and crafted, re-drawn and re-crafted over and over again should first be understood for the way they change our perception of the ordinary. Aldo Bakker. Pause / Lausanne demonstrates his subtle mastery of the extra-ordinary. Not by being outrageous but through subtlety and absolute precision of execution.

The exhibition is presented in 2016 at the CID – centre d’innovation et de design in Grand-Hornu (Belgium) before the mudac, sole Swiss venue of the exhibition.

Aldo Bakker, Pivot, 2014© Karakter. Image Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Aldo Bakker, Pot, 2015 © Aldo Bakker. Image Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Aldo Bakker, Swing, 2014 © © Karakter. Image Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Aldo Bakker, Square Pourer, 2015© Aldo Bakker. Image Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Aldo Bakker, Soy Pourer, 2010. Courtesy Thomas Eyck© Aldo Bakker. Image Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Aldo Bakker, Bronze Tonus, 2014. Courtesy Particles Gallery© Aldo Bakker. Image Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Carte blanche to David Bielander08.02 – 30.04.17

David Bielander, a Swiss designer living in Munich, translates everyday elements into jewellery. Objects such as prawns, pineapples, beetles or raspberries are immediately recognisable, yet disconcerting. The aim of his trompe-l’oeils is not to mystify the viewer but to set up a humorous interplay between the wearer and the jewellery itself. David Bielander seeks out the most suitable materials and techniques with which to simulate reality, yet it is not until his pieces are worn that they truly come to life. His Slugs pins launch a slithering attack on the neckline, the Snake necklace writhes around the throat.

Having trained as a goldsmith in Basel, Bielander gained a Masters from the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich in 2002, where he studied under Otto Künzli, master of conceptual jewellery, whose influence can be seen in both a deep understanding of the materials and the technical skill gained from this demanding training. He has recently been awarded numerous prestigious prizes including the Munich Förderpreis in 2009; the Herbert Hofmann Prize in 2010; and the Françoise van den Bosch Prize and the Swiss Federal Design Award, both in 2012. The exhibition will feature a selection of his pieces in a setting designed especially for his work, a world away from traditional museum glass cases.

Cardboard Crown, 2015, gold necklace, 2015© Image Dirk EiselExhibition view DIY, galerie Ornementum, Hudson (USA), 2015

Simon et David Bielander, Demiurg (Self-portrait David Bielander), photography, 2013

Koi, leather and drawing pins bracelet, 2012

Pearl Pig, gold and pearls brooch, 2003

Banana, silver and leather pendant, 2010

Sausage necklace, 2009

Mirror Mirror31.05 – 01.10.17

The idea that we live in the age of the image has been so thoroughly drilled into us, that all discourse now defines our era in these terms. Paradoxically, it has never been more difficult for each of us to read, analyse and interpret them. The speed with which images are broadcast, especially with new technologies, seems to be inversely pro-portional to our capacity to understand them in all their complexity. The one object that has been inextricably linked to the idea of image across all ages and art forms, from art to literature, new media to design, must surely be the mirror. As well as its reflective function, it is has also been imbued with strong symbolic connotations. The mirror is thus associated with an array of myths across many cultures.

The exhibition Mirror Mirror takes the form of a series of chapters and aims to bridge the microscopic gap sepa- rating our image from our being. Our reflection is utterly specific, making it undoubtedly the most complex of all images. In it, recognition and illusion are confused, giving rise to an inner disorder linked to our constant desire to read our identity here.

Each chapter tackles a specific theme relating to the mirror or reflections, and presents an array of design objects, complemented by others from the worlds of contemporary art and photography. Artists, whether famous or emerg-ing, offer their take on the idea which, on the frozen surface of the window, now defines our being in the world.

Douglas Gordon, Untitled (Je suis le nombril du monde), 2011 Matt Collishaw, Narcissus, 1990

ECAL/Jaehoon Jung & Purithat Thongphubal, #Mask, 2015

Jeppe Hein, Mirror Canvas, 2011Matt Collishaw, Black Mirror, David with the Head of Goliath, 2014

Carte blanche to Wieki Somers25.10.17 – 11.02.18

mudac’s series offering carte blanche to a designer invites designers from Switzerland and around the world to plan a personal exhibition, creating a special setting in which to display a selection of their work. For 2016, mudac has invited the Studio Wieki Somers, established in 2003 by two young graduates of the Design Academy Eindhoven: Wieki Somers and Dylan van den Berg.

Working in the fields of interior and industrial design, Studio Wieki Somers offers a unique and informed – even re-enchanted – reinterpretation of our everyday surroundings. Their work stands out for its keen sensitivity to their materials, as well as for their ingenuity and imagination. The studio works for various design editors, museums and galleries, including the prestigious Galerie kreo in Paris. They have won many awards and their work features in the collections of numerous international museums, such as MoMA in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, and the Albert and Victoria Museum in London.

Studio Wieki Somers, Aoyama, light, 2014. © Studio Wieki Somers

Studio Wieki Somers, Mattress Stone Bottle, container, 2002. © Studio Wieki Somers

Studio Wieki Somers, Chinese Stool – Made in China, Copied by the Dutch, stool, 2007. © Studio Wieki Somers

Studio Wieki Somers, Blossom, vase, 2005. © Studio Wieki Somers

Studio Wieki Somers, Frozen vase, vase, 2007. © Studio Wieki Somers

Studio Wieki Somers, Jin, light from the serie Mitate, 2013. © Studio Wieki Somers

François Daireaux. Blow Bangles. Million Bangles.25.10.17 – 11.02.18

The French artist François Daireaux presents his projects Blow Bangles and Million Bangles created around the glass bracelets produced in Firozabad, a city in northern India. For six hundred years, the city has focused almost entirely on manufacturing these bangles, which are brought together in clusters known as toras. Daireaux pur-chased a container-load of toras, in every possible shade, and had them shipped to the International Centre for Art Glass (CIAV) at Meisenthal in France. The bracelets were melted down and blown in 404 Lorraine moulds, chosen by the artist from CIAV’s vast collection of over 2,050 moulds from every era. The resulting Blow Bangles are 404 “impressions”, which sit halfway between sculpture and designer objects, and in which we can still make out the clusters of bracelets. Million Bangles features snapshots of the Firozabi artisans at work in the Indian factories, in often harsh and unhealthy conditions. Through these projects, the artist crosses, juxtaposes and blends the glass-making cultures of Firozabad and Meisenthal. This work thus touches on subjects such as migration, transition, transformation, memory, the effects of globalisation and the tensions between local and global.

Twenty Four Million Bangles, Firozabad, photography, 2012. © François Daireaux

Blow Bangles, blown glass prints (details), 2013. © François Daireaux

Media contact :

Isaline Vuille, public relationsisaline.vuille@lausanne.ch | 021 315 25 27

mudacMusée de design et d’arts appliqués contemporainsPlace de la Cathédrale 6CH – 1005 Lausannewww.mudac.chinfo@mudac.ch