The Design Museum takes a qualitative leap

BarcelonaThe prize-winning works of official competitions from more than a century ago can be very aggressive today. The first-class medal at the 1896 Barcelona Exhibition of Fine Arts and Artistic Industries was won by a luxurious centrepiece featuring the figure of an indigenous woman standing on fine stone rocks, holding one of Columbus's caravels. When it was awarded the prize, Barcelona City Council immediately bought it. Cuba and the Philippines were two years away from becoming independent from Spain and slavery had been abolished. In any case, to exhibit this object today it is necessary to put it very well in context so that displaying it is not a racist gesture.

This centrepiece was on display at the Barcelona Maritime Museum, and as of this Friday it is part of the renovation of the Design Museum within the exhibition Matter matters (The material matters, the material is a matter of substance). It is because the new discourse, forged by the architect and curator Olga Subirós, emphasizes the centerpiece as a result of the ravages of wild extractivism and colonialism, which have supported the geopolitical, social and environmental problems of today's world. "We are west of the Mediterranean, we are the West, Spain has been an imperialist state, we have been through five centuries of colonialism, and that has conditioned everything, we are heirs," warns Subirós. "We still have many objects arising from extractivism and colonialism; everything is colored by this past, and it is absolutely present: Trump and techno-oligarchs like Musk, Putin and Xi Jinping. This is shaping the world, and the products we have close by. Can we change this trend? The exhibition speaks positively," she emphasizes. For Subirós, imperialism and colonialism have a "disaffection" for the world, and she calls for a "design with the world."

Matter matters The doors open this Friday after two years of work, and it can already be said that it is quite an event and that it causes a qualitative leap in the museum's long-term exhibitions. The exhibition is a feast for all audiences and places the Design Museum in the 21st century, among the great museums of applied arts and design, and institutions from all over the world that are renewing themselves to delve deeper into the current turbulent world and contribute to forging alternatives for a better future, among which are the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Milan Triennial, the Applied Arts in Vienna, the MAK. "Museums are not just custodians. Heritage speaks, it has agency, and it can help us understand the complexity of the world," explains Subirós.

"This exhibition presents a museum's collection as a kaleidoscope with multiple visions. It is the most important design exhibition that has been done in the 21st century in our cultural context," says the artistic director of Dhub, of which the Design Museum is a part, José Luis de Vicente. The renovation of the museum is expected to continue over the next two years with the different parts of the permanent exhibition, starting with the fashion part. As the Councillor for Culture of the Barcelona City Council, Xavier Marcé, has said, the function of a contemporary museum is "to reflect on the conflicts that affect society."

Reconnecting with nature

The new exhibition is located on the second floor of the museum, where the semi-permanent exhibition used to be. Modernism, towards the culture of design. The new installation has brought about a radical change in the space. Subirós opened the 20-metre-long balcony that was closed, and opened another viewing point at the end of the route. Thus, the Plaça de les Glòries and the city of Barcelona are integrated into the discourse of the exhibition, which includes more than 700 objects, of which some 600 come from the museum's collections. Another 80 are invited works by artists and creators from all over, including the mural that opens the route, a kind of Rosetta stone of data with which Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler summarise five centuries of colonialism, and a large installation conceived with the Materfad on some vints, and a bicycle.

Subirós specifies the importance of matter in eight areas dedicated to different types of matter, such as petrochemical, vegetal, animal, microbiological and digital. Inside each one, a series of dialogues can be seen between ceramics, furniture, textiles and other objects from different periods. "The thesis shifts the focus from the iconic object to the process, to the material traceability and to the political and ecological implications of each material," says the curator. For example, she points out furniture made from overseas woods, such as ebony, mahogany and rosewood; addresses the dilemma of whether and how to display objects that include animal remains; and presents innovative objects made from recycled plastic or wood discarded by industry.

The first of the surprises comes at the beginning of the tour, in front of the balcony. To make the public consider another fundamental problem - to what extent we have separated ourselves from nature - Subirós makes the views that can be seen from this place dialogue with some two hundred ceramics with natural motifs made since the Middle Ages. "The difference between nature and culture is another tool of modernity. When one thinks that one has culture and is separated from nature, one ends up seeing nature as a field to be exploited. Not understanding that we are nature has caused the situation we are in," says Subirós.

Another interesting aspect of the exhibition is that it is part of the World Capital of Architecture Barcelona 2026, so each of the areas includes a section dedicated to architecture where you can see photographs, plans, models and samples of materials from buildings such as the Mediatic, by Enric Ruiz; the Sala Beckett, by Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats, and Can Sau, by Eduard Callís and Guillem Moliner.