The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich questions what lies behind its name:
               
DESIGN          
               
 
      AN OPEN APPROACH TO

ALL

AREAS OF DESIGN – INDUSTRIAL DESIGN, FURNITURE, TEXTILES, JEWELLERY, APPLIED ARTS, GRAPHIC DESIGN, TYPOGRAPHY, PHOTOGRAHY, NEW MEDIA, BOOK ART, POSTERS, FILM AS WELL AS ARCHITECTURE, SCENOGRAPHY, INTERIOR DESIGN AND PUBLIC SPACE –

DEFINES A 

MUSEUM WITH A UNIQUE PROFILE

THAT IS RECOGNISED

FAR BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES OF SWITZERLAND. 

    

Through its exhibitions, collections and publications the museum is a forum, archive and laboratory at one and the same time. The activities of research, collecting and communication interact here in a stimulating way. The phenomena of design are understood as the expression of human activities and values. Contexts are made clear and debates are stimulated. The intention is to define and strengthen the area of influence and the position of design in the public realm through a confrontation with history and the present, with both practice and theory.

The committed, occasionally affectionate but also ironic look at contemporary visual culture is honed by means of exhibitions that appeal equally to the specialist public as well as to broader sections of the population. Examples here include play and take away, both dating from 2005. The work of prominent designers is regularly presented, for example Stefan Sagmeister 2003; Catherine Zask 2005; or Konstantin Grcic 2007. In addition the programme is committed to the presentation of influential positions from the history of design: Gottfried Semper 2003, René Burri, 2005; Hans Finsler und die Schweizer Fotokultur, 2006; Haefeli/ Moser/ Steiger, 2007.

Those things that shape day-to-day life – whether they are from a forgotten past, from the present or even, potentially, the future – are exhibited and presented. It is, after all, our way of using things that first makes them what they are. Exhibitions are an ideal way to trace the language of things, the way they are used and their history.

Each project makes particular demands on the exhibition designers. Foreign objects such as the exotic visual world of Japanese posters (Japanische Plakate - heute, 2006) or invisible things such as the atmospheric description of a peculiarly Swiss phenomenon (Falsche Chalets, 2004) can be given a voice through subtle presentations. A precondition here is a willingness to focus a significant part of the conceptual work on the spatial implementation, as well as collaboration with both young and established scenographers.