REPACKED - STUDIO MAKKINK & BEY

until saturday july 11 2009
Tue-Sat. 2-6pm
Mitterrand+Cramer/Fine Art
T : +41 22 800 27 27
52, rue des Bains
1205 Geneva
Switzerland

contact@mitterrand-cramer.com
www.mitterrand-cramer.com

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. 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.