Hasta La Ideas

A retrospective of work by Dutch designer Marcel Wanders has opened at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (+ movie).

Marcel Wanders: Pinned Up at the Stedelijk features work from Wanders‘ entire career, charting developments from the late 1980s up to the present day.

Iconic pieces on show include the Knotted Chair that marked his international breakthrough in 1996 and the Lace Table created when Wanders was part of the avant-garde conceptual Dutch design movement led by Droog Design in the late 1990s.

This is the first large-scale presentation of the designer’s work and the first major design exhibition at the museum since its reopening in 2012.

“It’s not so much that it’s almost 25 years and it’s not so much that I’m 50, but it’s just the right moment for me,” Wanders says in this movie filmed behind the scenes at the exhibition installation.

“When you look at the work you do every day, you do see things,” he continues. “But if you look at the work you did for 25 years, suddenly you start to get a more complete picture.”

Over 400 objects are on view in the lower-level gallery space, located in the new wing of the Stedelijk Museum.

The show is divided into three sections. A white zone groups his work according to themes including craftsmanship, narratives and dialogues, surface, innovation, archetypes, variation, and playing with scale.

A black zone then presents work of a more experimental nature in a theatrical setting.

This area features seven virtual interiors created by Wanders as a series of movies. Some are fantasy interiors incorporating his furniture, while others depict more mysterious, dreamlike worlds.

A third zone functions as a lounge where Wanders’ role as art director for design companies is explored, including the Moooi brand that he co-founded in 2001 and the publicity photos that he creates for clients including Dutch airline KLM.

High-profile interior design projects are represented too, including the Villa Moda boutique in Bahrain and the Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht Hotel.

“Marcel is not only one of the most important Dutch designers of the past decade, but in fact he is one of the most creative, versatile and successful designers internationally of the past decade,” says exhibition curator Ingeborg de Roode.

Dutch pop composer Jacob Ter Veldhuis has created a soundscape especially for the exhibition and Wanders has also partnered created a cocktail that will be served in the museum’s restaurant for the duration of the show. The exhibition continues until 15 June 2014.

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