BTS at the UN, Doughy Furniture and other design news


Photo-Illustration: Bordered. Photos (clockwise from top left): Sidd Finch; John Angelillo; James Harris; Ace Hotel Brooklyn

Every two weeks, I will collect and share objects, designers, news and events to know.

Clockwise from left: Photo: John Angelillo – Pool / Getty ImagesPhoto: Mark Joseph Sullivan / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty ImagesPhoto: Jeenah Moon / Bloomberg via Getty Images

From above: Photo: John Angelillo – Pool / Getty ImagesPhoto: Jeenah Moon / Bloomberg via Getty ImagesPhoto: Mark Joseph Sullivan / Pacific Press / LightRocket …
From above: Photo: John Angelillo – Pool / Getty ImagesPhoto: Jeenah Moon / Bloomberg via Getty ImagesPhoto: Mark Joseph Sullivan / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty Images

The United Nations really wants to make the world believe that he understands. Or even remind the world that it exists. So he handed over the keys to his historic General Assembly building to BTS in a rather bare attempt to gain relevance. The K-pop boy group filmed their latest video, “Permission to Dance”, on location and also gave a speech at the opening of the General Assembly to encourage climate action. What’s even funnier is that a large chunk of BTS’s audience – aka Gen Z – already cares about the climate. Remember the rather embarrassing shame of Greta Thunberg who in 2019 pointed out the organization’s hypocrisy, given its members’ massive carbon footprint from air travel?

This isn’t the first time an artist has recorded in the building: In 2012 Beyoncé filmed a performance as part of World Humanitarian Day, but we didn’t see much inside the building. building. The BTS video, which has been streamed 16.5 million times, shows the boys humming on the marble podium in the General Assembly Hall, squeezing through the moss green chairs, and bouncing around the visitors’ hall of four. floors before heading to the front lawn. It’s a rare chance to see the interior of one of the most famous Modernist buildings and it’s nice to see the building receiving love, especially after a $ 2.3 billion renovation completed in 2017. The booster of the video, as well as its setting, also seem strangely appropriate: The United Nations was designed in the 1940s by another “supergroup”: the international team of architects which included Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer and Sven Markelius and intended to display progressive values ​​through marble, glass and steel.

Photo: James Harris /

Design Miami / Basel – the premier show for collectible art and design – is now on view in Basel, Switzerland. He’ll pack his bags and arrive in Miami (where parties are often more appealing than work itself) in December. This edition has a new online store, called DM / BX, which sells everything from textile wall hangings from Mali for $ 150 to Roberto Lugo bowls for $ 2,500. I was very excited to see some pieces by Diego Faivre, an artist based in the Netherlands who covers found objects in air-dried clay which he calls “Diego Dough”. Faivre’s 2018 graduation project from Design Academy Eindhoven, named “Minute Manufacturing”, remains one of my favorite projects. He sold one-euro “Diego coins” each worth one minute of production time. The idea is that the more you spend, the more time it spends and the better the piece will be in the end. A few of his pieces are on sale in the DM / BX store, each with quite literal names like Table Made in 655 Minutes, Stool Made in 296 Minutes, Planter Made in 306 Minutes. Each piece is made to order.

Photo: Erik Benjamins

There have been a number of excellent contemporary design exhibitions in Modernist homes lately – see: recent Object & Thing exhibitions at Noyes House and Luss House – which provide a twist to the museum of typical house. Instead of going into a time capsule, it feels more like a voyeuristic view of the life of a very stylish collector. “Built In”, a new exhibition at the Neutra VDL House in Los Angeles, is the latest. To celebrate the home’s reopening after a COVID-19 hiatus, its directors, Los Angeles Design Gallery Marta and artist Erik Benjamins, commissioned 32 in situ works from local artists, such as the house numbers in ceramic from PapiBoyBabyBoy, a giant fountain in the shape of a shell. which masks the noise of the street by Charlap Hyman & Hererro, and the curtains by Misa Chhan. Until November 7.

Photo: Sidd Finch

The fluid mechanics of the lava lamp are not appreciated enough. Perhaps this is because the lamp is associated with rude fellowship houses, fire hazards, and toxic chemicals. But the shapes inside the glass container can be fascinating. Joe Jagodzinski, a self-taught CAD designer and maker in Detroit, took inspiration from them to make a 3D printed tribute in the form of a gravity-defying blobby base that won’t burn down your home if left on.

Photo: Courtesy of Ace Hotel Brooklyn

In homage to the famous Bauhaus weaving workshop, the Ace Brooklyn, whose architectural facade is inspired by Bauhaus architecture, focused on the ornamentation of its interiors with sculptures in textile and fiber commissioned by the artist and curator Niki Tsukamoto. The contrast of the soft, supple, and textured art of more than two dozen local manufacturers and brutalist-leaning interiors make this beautiful hotel art. Textile pieces are also on display in the ground floor art gallery, which hosts group exhibitions of all the artists who have created works for the rooms. The latest iteration features Molly Haynes’ graphic string sculptures, intricately wrapped wall hangings by Alicia Scardetta, and naturally-dyed fabrics by Isa Rodrigues. Until 2021.



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