LABORAL - CENTRO DE ARTE Y CREACIÓN INDUSTRIAL

CONCEPT

LABoral Centro de Arte shows Nowhere/Now/Here, an exhibition curated by the creative partnership of Roberto Feo and Rosario Hurtado (El Último Grito) that challenges the perception of design by questioning our relationship with the environment. Taking the viewpoint that our environment has become part of us rather than us being part of it, as its point of departure, Nowhere/Now/ Here encourages us to see design as an integral component of the world-shaping process.

Three key themes of the exhibition take us on an inspiring journey through visions, approaches and personal reflections on how we could change the way we live.

Cultural Resistance challenges the idea of what culture is today and the many ways it can be perceived. It provokes existing systems and proposes new alternatives in socio-economical and religious context. It offers an opportunity to discover new narratives in relation to an object as well as changes in the culture of design profession.

Psychological Exploration takes a look at how we understand an object on a psychological level. The theme examines how we relate and react to an object emotionally and allow for it to translate us into different places and moments.

Material Intervention investigates new tools, materials and technologies applied in design and manufacturing processes today. Moreover, the subject engages with the interference of consumerism and ecology and explores the influence of graphic and spatial intervention on our behaviour and relation to space and object.

Nowhere/Now/Here features more than 60 works ranging from everyday products, fashion, jewellery to installations and live performances by established designers such as Tord Boontje, Jerszy Seymour, Santiago Cirugeda, Dunne & Raby, together with emerging design practitioners including Martino Gamper, Paul Cocksedge, Assa Ashuach, Troika, recent graduates and students such as Raw Edges, Dash Macdonald, Nacho Carbonell among others. A crucial aspect of Nowhere/Now/Here is the contribution of four masters: Ron Arad, Gaetano Pesce, Javier Mariscal and Daniel Weil who contextualize the work of the younger generation trough a series of interviews and some of their works.

The designer’s ideas of a customized, more functional and eventually better world are presented in groups formulated on the notion of non-linear context. One that sees no common discipline, technique or material but creates a unity evoked by the association of ideas.

The conceptual journey arranged by El Último Grito leads through hexagonally shaped and multi-layered spaces designed by Patricia Urquiola studio and the graphic image and vision of Fernando Gutierrez.

Nowhere/Now/Here offers an opportunity to reflect on how design and technology can change lives, systems and the environment. An approach followed by El Último Grito since the beginning of their creative practice, one that moves away from preconceived definitions and searches for new ways of thinking about contemporary design. The curators set out with the idea for the exhibition to be a first step of something to follow. Their aim has been to ‘open a chapter rather than close one’. 

CURATORS: Roberto Feo and Rosario Hurtado (El Último Grito) 

ARTISTS: 5:5 Designers, AA, Amidov, Assa Ashuach, Bruce Bell, Bryony Birkbeck, Tord Boontje, Marta Botas & Germán R. Blanco, David Bowen, Fernando Brizio, Nacho Carbonell, Daniel Charny & Gabriel Klasmer, Santiago Cirugeda, Carl Clerkin, Paul Cocksedge, Dainippon Type Organization, Óscar Díaz, Dunne & Raby, Daniel Eatock, Olivia Flore Decaris, Tiago Fonseca, Fulguro & Thomas Jomini, Architecture Workshop, Martino Gamper, Martí Guixé, Mathias Hahn, Interaction Research Studio, Onkar Kular, Tithi Kutchamuch, Dash MacDonald, Material Beliefs (Auger-Loizeau, Elio Caccavale, Tobie Kerridge, Susana Soares, Aleksandar Zivanovic, David Muth), Alejandro Mazuelas, Alon Meron, mmmm..., Eelko Moorer, Oscar Narud, NB: Studio, Ernesto Oroza, Marc Owens, Pedrita, Laura Potter, Corinne Quin, Random International, Raw Edges Design Studio, Nic Rysenbry, Jerszy Seymour, Bert Simons, Studio Glithero, Yuri Suzuki, Gregor Timlin, Noam Toran, Manel Torres, Maud Traon, Troika, Pablo Valbuena, Greetje van Helmond, Dominic Wilcox, Nick Williamson, Marei Wollersberger, Zaunka

EXHIBITION DESIGN: Patricia Urquiola &Martino Berghinz

GRAPHIC DESIGN: Fernando Gutiérrez

SPECIAL THANKS TO: Ron Arad, Javier Mariscal, Gaetano Pesce & Daniel Weil

Download the catalogue in PDF