From Vinçon to Ikea: an exhibition celebrates the democratization of design | Culture | EUROtoday

You should be very beneficiant to be the proprietor and soul of the legendary Vinçon retailer in Barcelona and pay tribute to it with Ikea objects. It’s what the exhibition does 100 Ikea objects that we’d have favored to have in Vinçon, inaugurated this Wednesday on the Barcelona design museum, the DHUB, curated by Juli Capella. When they proposed the tribute to Fernando Amat, head of the much-missed retailer on Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona that closed in 2015 (the one in Madrid had closed 4 years earlier than), he considered Ikea: “Fernando did not have the ego of the gang of the [diseñadores] “We think we are the shit,” Capella celebrated in the presentation about someone who “while the entire sector wrote letters of complaint and suggested boycotting, he saw that Ikea was the way.” Two years have passed from the idea to the exhibition, a joy for anyone who likes design. And even more so if you can pay for it and take it home.

For the first time, the public can see in a museum the bamboo board with which he prepares the vegetables for dinner, the recycling bins he has under the sink, his daughters’ crib, the little kitchen in which they played, the table where he has breakfast and dinner, or the white polka dot plastic stool he has in the bathroom. All with the price tag hanging off. Not putting a price on what is exhibited is one of the unwritten rules of museology that the exhibition breaks. Others talk about brands or exhibit objects in a public museum that can be bought 200 meters away, in the shopping center where there is a small Ikea store.

Vinçon was a temple of such caliber that it won the National Design Award (1995) when no store had won. The Amats, with Fernando at the head, dedicated themselves for decades to buying and selling objects that they would like to have at home: furniture, accessories, notebooks, lamps, tableware, toys or shower curtains. And in addition to a cathedral of functionality and design, it was many more things: “A store, the place to spend some time if it rained, a shortcut on walking routes.” [tenía puerta en paseo de Gràcia y en Pau Claris]an exhibition corridor, a college or a spot the place kids might play”, within the phrases of Juli Capella. It was additionally the one free public toilet on Passeig de Gràcia. Always clear. “That was not David against Goliath, it was David and Goliath,” says Capella.

Los 100 Ikea objects that we’d have favored to have in Vinçon They occupy the middle of the exhibition, the place they dangle from a white, round wall. They have been chosen by Fernando Amat and his nephew Sergio. The first traveled to the Ikea Museum in Sweden after which the 2 visited the L’Hospitalet (Barcelona) retailer a number of instances and consulted catalogues. The criterion? The identical one they utilized in Vinçon: aesthetic choice, performance, worth “and, above all, instinct, thinking about what they would like to have at home.”

Wrapping the cylinder with the 100 chosen objects, and in an ingenious train, 14 elements that the enterprise initiatives of Vinçon and Ikea share are in contrast. That its promoters began very younger (each Juan and Fernando Amat and Ingvar Kamprad took the reins of the enterprise from children being children), that Amat is colorblind and Kamprad was dyslexic (therefore Ikea objects would not have a numerical reference however a phrase ) or that each shops provided 10,000 references. The picture past the emblem is one other analogous concern: “Both started with hesitant logos with a lot of explanatory text, but over time they acquired personality,” the exhibition explains. By the best way, if the identify Vinçon derives from the surname of one of many firm’s founders, Ikea is an acronym of the identify of the founder (Ingvar Kamprad) and the farm and its start city (Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd).

The graphic design and communication of each firms can also be current on this half that contextualizes them. Vinçon had a particular “communicative sensitivity, with Mediterranean designers, iconic and diverse proposals,” the exhibition celebrates. At Ikea, every venture “has its own graphic identity, but it is easy to identify and allows communication on a global scale.” They each deal with clients such as you. And each of them additionally make “atypical” promoting, within the eyes of the commissioner.

And three different points on which the 2 firms agree: the star product, the inventory market and that they’re “labyrinths of seduction”: one within the Eixample and one other in recognizable cubes on the outskirts of the cities. Regarding the star product, we speak in regards to the Vinçon calendar, which continues to be revealed regardless of the closure of shops; and the Billy bookshelf, of which one unit is bought each 5 seconds. And the luggage, extraordinarily recognizable: Vinçon made two designs a yr; and Frakta, the blue Ikea bag, which has turn into an emblem of globalization and is current in laundries and removals world wide. The exhibition ends with a debate about what design is for between personalities from the inventive and cultural world captured in two audiovisuals.

At the presentation, each Fernando Amat and Ikea’s head of world design, Johan Ejdemo, appeared overwhelmed. Fernando has delegated the reasons and because of Juli Capella. And Ejdemo, who could not cease laughing on the curator’s expressiveness, celebrated the exhibition “as recognition of our democratic design.” “At Ikea we are curious and we love exploring new territories, especially those in which design plays a leading role. This exhibition offers us the opportunity to delve deeper into the meaning that design has today and how it is present in everyday life. “It is very interesting to start this debate about design with a brand from Barcelona like Vinçon that also sought the well-being of people in their homes.” Among the 100 objects chosen there are three by the Valencian designer Inma Bermúdez: the Gradvis vase, the Ekrar coat rack and the Ennuden bathroom brush. Happy, after 15 years of labor within the Swedish firm, he celebrates “the recognition of the effort and dedication we put into each design.” “Seeing how our creations connect with people and find their place in such important events is very special. I hope this exhibition inspires many and shows the value of design in our daily lives,” he provides.