Dezeen » Jurgen Bey

Repacked by Studio Makkink & Bey

Rose Etherington — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:20:58 +0000

Dutch designers Studio Makkink & Bey have created a furniture collection in which every element - from carpentry to embroidery - is produced in their studio by a hired team of artisans.

The Repacked collection, which is on show at Mitterrand+Cramer gallery in Geneva, Switzerland, consists of 19 handmade pieces.

The display forms part of a series of exhibitions at the gallery showcasing work by contemporary designers, which has so far included Belgian designers Studio Job and British designer Tom Dixon (see our previous story).

Repacked continues at Mitterrand+Cramer until 11 July.

Here are some more details from Mitterrand+Cramer:

Studio Makkink & Bey

Simultaneously to the common opening night of the « QuARTier des Bains », Edward Mitterrand and Stéphanie Cramer are pleased to announce the third episode of a series of exhibitions dedicated to a selection of the most prominent contemporary designers.

Thus, after Studio Job and Tom Dixon, Mitterrand+Cramer, helped by swiss design curators Sophie et Philippe Cramer, are now proud to inaugurate the first solo exhibition in Switzerland by architecture and design studio Studio Makkink & Bey.

Fusing the best of both creative worlds, architect Rianne Makkink and designer Jurgen Bey founded Studio Makkink & Bey in 2002 and have enjoyed the benefits of joint talents and joint minds ever since.

On the occasion of RePacked they have selected a special team to design and handcraft all of the 19 pieces exhibited which are handmade by the studio: the embroidery, woodwork, blue foam pieces.

The Dutch designers imagined this project with the idea of re-interpretation, re-use of studio projects fitted for a contemporary art gallery exhibition.

Some of the pieces were especially made for the gallery and have never been shown before.

The Centerpieces for instance are created by stacking wooden crates and showcases, the most precious and vulnerable items being safely packed in the core of the stack.

The idea is that the piece will reveal itself like a matroeska.

Other works, like the Social sculptures and the Hommage to Rietveld furniture have been re-interpreted as special editions for the gallery.

The Crate Cabinets was a project launched in 2003-2004, in which packing material was given a new meaning.

The Crate is the packing and the Cabinet at the same time.

For this project Studio Makkink & Bey used -instead of a wooden box- more delicate and precious materials, like plexiglass.

This way, you can see through the cabinet, it becomes the ultimate showcase.

Studio Makkink & Bey is helmed by Dutch designer Jurgen Bey, who is known for his innovative designs and commitment to design education and research, Together with architect Rianne Makkink.

Bey is a Senior Design Tutor in the Design Products Department at the Royal College of Art (London) and continues to run his design studio in Rotterdam.

The philosophy of Studio Makkink & Bey is 'to consider urban and architectural planning as being indissolubly linked to the design of products'.

Studio Makkink & Bey has been commissioned by Swarovski, Jean Paul Gaultier, Sketch in London, and has exhibited at Centre Pompidou, Stedelijk Museum, and the V&A Museum among other venues.

Wouldn’t it be Nice… at Somerset House

Matylda Krzykowski — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:40:37 +0000

An exhibition exploring the common ground between design and art and featuring work by Martí Guixé, Jurgen Bey (above) Martino Gamper and more opened at Somerset House in London yesterday.

Called Wouldn’t it be Nice… Wishful Thinking in Art and Design, the exhibition will feature changing content and performances during its run.

The show is on until 7 December. Above: Bless, N° Car Cover 35 Automatica, 2008

Above: Bless , N°35 Automatica, Remote Controlled Cars #03 Planter, 2008

Above: Tobias Rehberger, MoF 94,7 %, 2007

Above: Ryan Gander, If I could see but a day of it, (Multiverse), 2007

Above: Dunne & Raby and Michael Anastsassiades, Huggable Atomic Mushrooms, 2004

Above: Superflex, Burning Car (video), 10 minutes, 2008

Above: Alicia Framis, China Five Stars, 100 Ways to Wear a Flag, 2007

Above: Martino Gamper, Gallery Furniture, 2007

Photographs by Sylvain Deleu.

The following information is from Somerset House:

Constantly changing contemporary art and design exhibition at Somerset House:

Wouldn’t it be nice…Wishful thinking in art and design
17 September – 7 December 2008

Somerset House is to stage a major exhibition of contemporary art and design full of wit and subversion. Featuring new and recent work from 10 leading practitioners from the world of art and design, the exhibition explores the common ground between the two fields. The exhibition’s content will change and develop with a programme of performance-based installations during its run. Wouldn’t it be nice.. will also include new commissions from Martino Gamper, Bless and Graphic Thought Facility and the first UK showing of a new film by Superflex.

Performances:
The MacGuffin Library

One performance-driven installation will involve the design and fabrication in the gallery of 20 objects using a rapid prototyping machine. The MacGuffin Library by Onkar Kular and Noam Toran is based on a concept attributed to Alfred Hitchcock; a MacGuffin is a cinematic plot device that exists solely to drive the story forward. Kular and Toran will write 20 film synopses and then manufacture the accompanying collection of MacGuffins.

Cocoon
Korean artist Chosil Kil will spend a week in residence in the gallery, building a cocoon from found material as part of her project building shelters which visualise her assimilation process as a foreigner arriving in London.

In the exhibition:
Jurgen Bey, Bless, Dexter Sinister, Dunne & Raby with Michael Anastassiades , Alicia Framis, Martino Gamper, Ryan Gander, Martí Guixé, Tobias Rehberger and Superflex. Commissions by Graphic Thought Facility and performance installations by Noam Toran and Onkar Kular, Chosil Kil, Ǻbäke and Europa.

The exhibition will show how contemporary art and design have recently been fostering some intriguing shared ideals; rejecting traditional definitions of their practice and instead treating their work as an investigation. The exhibition focuses on art and design’s cultural role as a medium for experimentation, and as a catalyst for change. The ‘wishful thinking’ in the title refers to a determinedly optimistic approach to production, whether political, sthan delivering straight answers, it offers a space for reflection.

The post Wouldn’t it be Nice… at Somerset House appeared first on Dezeen.

Wouldn't it be nice... at Somerset House

Rose Etherington — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:14:16 +0000

An exhibition entitled Wouldn't it be nice... exploring the common ground between art and design, including work by Jurgen Bey, Dunne & Raby, Martino Gamper and Martí Guixé, will open at the Embankment Galleries at Somerset House in London this September.

The exhibition will feature new and recent work from ten practitioners and will be accompanied by performances, installations and talks.

Above: Jurgen Bey, The Modelworld Maquette, 2007
Top image and below: Bless, Fat Knit Hammock, 2007

Wouldn't it be nice... will also incorporate new commissions by Martino Gamper, Bless, and Graphic Thought Facility.

All photographs installation views, Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève by Francis Ware.

The following information is from Somerset House:

Constantly changing contemporary art and design exhibition at Somerset House:
Wouldn’t it be nice… …Wishful thinking in art and design
17 September – 7 December 2008

Somerset House announces a major exhibition of contemporary art and design full of wit and subversion. Featuring new and recent work from 10 leading practitioners from the world of art and design, the exhibition explores the common ground between the two fields. The exhibition’s content will constantly change and develop with a programme of performance-based installations during its run. Wouldn’t it be nice.. will also include new commissions from Martino Gamper, Bless, and Graphic Thought Facility.

Above and below: Alicia Famis, China Five Stars, 100 Ways to Wear a Flag, 2007

The MacGuffin Library
One performance-driven installation will involve the design and fabrication in the gallery of 20 objects using a rapid prototyping machine. The MacGuffin Library by Onkar Kular and Noam Toran is based on a concept attributed to Alfred Hitchcock; a MacGuffin is a cinematic plot device that exists solely to drive the story forward. Kular and Toran will write 20 film synopses and then manufacture the accompanying collection of MacGuffins.

Below: Dunne & Raby and Michael Anastassiades, Alignment, 2007

Below: Dunne & Raby and Michael Anastassiades, Statistical Clock, 2007

Below: Dunne & Raby and Michael Anastassiades, Hideaway Type 2, 2004

The ‘wishful thinking’ in the title refers to a determinedly optimistic approach to production, whether political, social or conceptual. The exhibition will show how contemporary art and design have recently been fostering some intriguing shared ideals; rejecting traditional definitions of their practice and instead treating their work as an investigation.

Below: Tobias Rehberger, MoF 94,7%, 2007

Offering open-ended readings of the works, the exhibition focuses on art and design’s cultural role as a medium for social experimentation, and as a catalyst for questioning and change. Rather than delivering straight answers, it offers a space for reflection.

Talks
The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of talks given by artists, designers and academics. Details will be announced at www.somersethouse.org.uk.

Above and below: Martino Gamper, Gallery Furniture, 2007

Wouldn’t it be nice.. embodies the ambitions of the Embankment Galleries programme at Somerset House to be fast-moving, cross-disciplinary and content-generating. It will be characterised by unpredictability; where new routes of practice are forged, new works created, and ideas turned over.

Below: Ryan Gander, I couldn't See But A Day Of It (Multiverse), 2007

Wouldn’t it be nice… is the second exhibition in the new Embankment Galleries at Somerset House, devoted to a broad spectrum of the contemporary arts and organised by Somerset House Trust under the curatorial direction of Claire Catterall. The programme launched in April 2008 with the hugely successful Skin + Bones, Parallel Practice in Fashion and Architecture which closes 10 August.

The exhibition is curated by Katya García-Antón and Emily King, and produced by the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève and the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich. The exhibition formed part of the wider project AC*DC, a collaboration with the Geneva University of Art and Design, including an international conference and a series of master classes. It comes to Somerset House after successful shows in Geneva and Zurich. This is the exhibition’s only venue in the UK.

Publication
Wouldn’t it be nice…
…Wishful thinking in art and design
Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, ed.
With contributions from Katya García-Antón, Emily King and Christian Brändle
Design: Graphic Thought Facility, 320 pages, JRP|Ringier.

Wouldn’t it be nice…
17 September – 7 December 2008
Opening hours 10.00 – 18.00 daily
Late opening Thursday until 21.00
Tickets £8, concessions £6
Somerset House,
Victoria Embankment,
London WC2R 1LA

For the exhibition Somerset House is partnering with London Design Festival, 13 – 23 September 2008.

The post Wouldn't it be nice... at Somerset House appeared first on Dezeen.

Witness Flat by Jurgen Bey

Marcus Fairs — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:22:47 +0000

Dutch designer Jurgen Bey turns La Galerie de Pierre Bergé & associés in Brussels into a show flat for his new exhibition that opens on Thursday.

Called Fitness Flat, the show features many new pieces in wood, wool and felt.

Below is a text about the exhibition by Max Borka:

Jurgen Bey

"WITNESS FLAT"

From Thursday 12 June to Monday 30 June 2008
open every day from 10.30 to 18.30

La Galerie de Pierre Bergé & associés
Place du Grand Sablon 40
1000 Bruxelles

Dutch Trees and sheep make a collection of Furniture that changes the Gallery into a temporary test house. Slats, felt and capable hands have worked together and shared knowledge to compose a temporary apartment made of slats and a sewing machine. A pile of slats and a coil of felt became a test house.

A POOR HAUTE COUTURE

Since the corporate luxury-industry took the helm in the world of design furniture, that had been almost exclusively a matter of small and medium-size family-run firms, and the Charme group, to cite only the most striking example, became the major player in Italy through the purchase of some key-companies, consequences have also manifested themselves in a most spectacular way on the product level.

The words haute couture are also used by Dutch designer Jürgen Bey (1965) to define his one man show at the Galerie of Pierre Bergé & associés, while describing it as a totally new kind of assignment, with plenty of possibilities.

This may sound strange, coming from Jürgen Bey, who had himself noted from the very beginning because of his all-but-fashionable work, driven by the ambition to analyse things nobody else was interested in, such as dust or waiting, and handling an arte povera that was entirely his own, be it only because of its total lack of memory.

At the request of Pierre Bergé & associés the gallery has now been transformed by him into a witness apartment, as if the visitor would enter a show flat. The studio makkink & bey did this with series of totally new designs, in wood and felt, thus also referring to the fur trade that had once made the fortune of the building, using a language that also refers to packaging, the remainders and witnesses that usually nobody is interested in. “This kind of assignment is totally new for all the partners that are involved, says Bey”.

Also the designer gets the possibility to work in totally different circumstances. In projects such as Interpolis, a designer is tied hand and foot to a very precise assignment, a public space that has to be user-friendly and durable, wile a project like this leaves much more room for experiment, because you don’t have to meet all these regulations.

But it is also different from a private assignment, where you don’t have to satisfy the load of requirements that have to do with public space, but still have to submit to the longings of one single person. This is much more abstract, with one client who can have a taste of the apartment without eating it, before the dream is passed in pieces to buyers. Compare it to a fashion designer who gets the opportunity to create a haute couture line, and the means to build a team that can turn this statement into reality, beyond the isolated position you are usually confined to.

There’s no doubt that this has to do with the growing market for limited editions, and it creates new perspectives. I could also deduct it from the fact that, where usually I have a very clear concept in mind, this time I was experiencing a new adventure. It was a discovery trip that only gradually revealed itself, slowly, while the project took shape”.

Max Borka

The post Witness Flat by Jurgen Bey appeared first on Dezeen.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness by Studio Makkink & Bey

Marcus Fairs — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:59:19 +0000

Design Miami/Basel 08: Dutch designer Jurgen Bey and architect Rianne Makkink present a new series of work for Chinese gallery Contrasts in Basel this week.

Called Cleanliness is next to Godliness and inspired by the apparent Chinese obsession with cleaning, the series consists of cleaning cabinets made of traditional Chinese luxury materials such as silk fabrics and porcelain, plus a dining table (above) and a porcelain bathtub (below).

Makkink and Bey created the pieces while taking part in the gallery's residency programme in China.

Here's some info from Contrasts Gallery:

The Gallery is currently collaborating with Dutch designer Jurgen Bey and architect Rianne Makkink’s Studio Makkink & Bey. The Studio is re-inventing traditional Chinese art and craft techniques with its highly conceptual Cleanliness is next to Godliness series.

Inspired by the beauty and optimism of Chinese propaganda posters, the Studio has re-imagined propaganda for the overlooked world of cleaning by using precious Chinese porcelain, silk fabrics, woodwork, and reverse inside painting. Cleaning cabinets are made luxurious, composed of Chinese silk fabric boxes, which can be self-assembled on top of a wooden base. They are filled with gloves and aprons embroidered with cleaning ladies and other helpers, a delicate porcelain mop, broom, and dustpan with hand-sculpted details, and other surprises.

Studio Makkink & Bey
cleaning-beauty-dining-table, 2007 (above)
Traditional Chinese boxes, fabric, wood with porcelain, embroidery, and Bone
China contents
H68 x W246 x D110 cm
Edition of 8

Studio Makkink & Bey (shown above)
cleaning-beauty-bathtub, 2008
Porcelain
H141 x diam. 100 cm
Edition of 8
(ladder not pictured)