Exhibition Archive

Exhibition information

kyoto ddd gallery The 233th Exhibition FormSWISS

October 05, 2022 - November 20, 2022

Designed by &Form
Designed by &Form
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While the online environment is rapidly expanding into all areas of our lives and we can instantly access all kinds of information anywhere, there are still some things that we can only obtain in the real world. This notion occurred to me anew back in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, when I went on a solo trip for a month in Switzerland to carry out research on design. I organized everything myself for this trip; I drew up a list of designers, design schools, and museums, made my own appointments to visit them, and traveled there by train, camera in hand. Global design platform “Form” is an ongoing design project hosted by Design Studio &Form that explores the roles, significance, philosophy, and education of the designers of the future through research and dialogue with designers and design education institutions around the world, and disseminates the findings through media, exhibitions, educational opportunities, and other means. The impetus for launching Form came from a hunch I had that now would be a good time to pause and reflect once again on such things as the beauty and function of design, the philosophy of design, and what it means to live an enriched life.
I chose to focus on Switzerland for the first round of Form. FormSWISS is a traveling exhibition focusing on current Swiss visual design (graphic design, typography, motion graphics, etc.), its philosophy and lifestyle. The exhibition, which has been held in Tokyo and Kobe, will now be held at kyoto ddd gallery. Focusing on designers from small villages and towns in Switzerland who are influencing the world of design beyond national borders, the exhibition will also feature video interviews with 15 designers from design universities and museums, exhibits by top designers representing current Swiss design, and panel discussions with creators from various fields. Through these and other means, the exhibition presents a multidimensional introduction to the diversity of Swiss design, education, lifestyles, and values from a design perspective. I hope that through this exhibition, visitors will get to experience Swiss design in ways that are different from the conventional image of Swiss design.
Arata Maruyama (&Form)

&Form

&Form is a visual communication design studio that specializes in decorative and enduring creative output based on the perspectives and concepts of design, and in design consulting for effective and strategic use of design. The studio extracts the essence of the project, and develops concepts and solutions derived from this to build a brand based on visual communication that enables variable use in any media or environment, everything from analog to digital and from flat surfaces to spaces, and leads to a total design with consistency and global beauty in mind. It also operates Form, a global design platform that explores the roles, significance, philosophy, and education of designers, and disseminates information from multiple directions.

Ryuji Nakamura (Ryuji Nakamura and Associates)

Architect. Born in Nagano Prefecture. After completing the master’s program at Tokyo University of the Arts, he worked at Jun Aoki and Associates before establishing Ryuji Nakamura and Associates in 2004. His major works include “Hechima“ (collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), “Corn Field“ (“Where is Architecture? Seven installations by Japanese Architects,“ National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo), JINS Kyoto Teramachi dori, Citizen lobby of Kobe City Hall, &Form studio and gallery, “MAnature,“ and others. His major awards include the Kyoto Architectural Award, Excellence Prize and the JIA Rookie of the Year Award. He is the author of Controlled and Uncontrolled Lines published by LIXIL Publishing.

 

Venue

3F COCON KARASUMA, 620 Suiginya-cho, Karasuma-dori Shijo-sagaru, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto City 600 8411, Japan
Tel: 075-585-5370 Fax: 075-585-5369
Hours: 11:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Closed: Monday (or the following day if Monday is a national holiday or a substitute holiday), the day after a national holiday (open if Saturday or Sunday falls on a national holiday)
A short walk from the Shijo Karasuma City Bus stop, Shijo Station on the Subway Karasuma Line (exit 2), and Karasuma Station on the Hankyu Kyoto Line (exits 23 and 25).
Free entrance. No parking.