The cultural season starting in Bordeaux in June 2019 is dedicated to Freedom.
The Museum of Decorative Arts and Design (madd-bordeaux) is taking part in this by hosting, in the former prison, the exhibition Memphis – Plastic Field, which was presented in 2018 at the Berengo Foundation alongside the 16th Venice Architecture Exhibition.
By presenting this exhibition, the Madd-Bordeaux continues the work inaugurated by Jacqueline du Pasquier, honorary curator of the museum, who in 1983 hosted in Bordeaux the first French exhibition devoted to the Memphis Group.
Exhibiting Memphis today also allows us to show the present-day pertinence of this impetus towards freedom that gave centre stage to democratic culture and focused on the aspects that elitist designers despised, i.e. ornamentation and decoration, by also highlighting spontaneity, sensuality and humour. As stated by Paris Match in 1983: "After Memphis, nothing was ever the same again in the history of interior design".
Bringing together over 160 iconic works designed between 1981 and 1988, Memphis Plastic Field highlights the irreverent and subversive spirit of all these young designers. As well as these masterpieces, about thirty vases produced in Murano are exhibited.
"Memphis tried to breathe new life into the word "design"... The thing I like about all these Memphis
objects is their playfulness. "
