The spirit of “Mingei” in Japan: folk art design

until sunday january 11 2009
musée du quai Branly
galerie Jardin
T : +33 (0)1 56 61 70 00
37, quai Branly
75007 Paris
France

conatct presse
Anne-Sylvie Capitani
anne-sylvie.capitani@quaibranly.fr
www.quaibranly.fr

Frédéric Pillier / Pierre Laporte Communication
T : +33 (0)1 45 23 14 14
frederic@pierre-laporte.com

This exhibit is based on a specific case-that of thinker Yanagi Soetsu, promoter of the “Mingei” movement, and his son, Yanagi Sori, who was a premier post-war designer. The exhibit causes one to reflect on the relationship, established during the 20th century, between the rediscovery of certain traditional arts and international modern art through design.

Ticket office online

This dynamic comes out of a strictly ethnographic and anthropological perception of traditional folk art. Accordingly, it can be inscribed inside of a specific historical situation: that of Japan during the first half of the 20th century (until the end of the 1950’s). It also has to do with an aesthetic, moral and formal perspective that today is echoed by the “original forms” of certain contemporary designers.