Remaking our world
Shellworks, jars made from Vivomer, a bioplastic produced with the help of microbes, 2021
© Shellworks, photo: Catharina Pavitschitz
In partnership with Vitra Design Museum
Plastics have shaped our daily lives like no other material: from packaging to footwear, from household goods to furniture, from automobiles to architecture. A symbol of carefree consumerism and revolutionary innovation, plastics have spurred the imagination of designers and architects for decades. Today, the dramatic consequences of the plastic boom have become obvious and plastics have lost their utopian appeal. The exhibition Plastic: Remaking Our World at the Vitra Design Museum will examine the history and future of this material–from its meteoric rise in the twentieth century to its environmental impact and cutting-edge solutions for a more sustainable use of plastic.
Exhibits will include rarities from the dawn of the plastic age and spectacular objects of the pop era as well as numerous contemporary designs and projects ranging from pragmatic product innovations to solutions for cleaning up the oceans and bioplastics made from algae or mycelium.
Bakelite leaflet, 1930s; Courtesy of Amsterdam Bakelite Collection
(Left) Panasonic Toot-a-Loop R-72S radio, 1969–72 | © Vitra Design Museum, photo: Andreas Sütterlin
(Right) Eero Aarnio, Pallo / Ball Chair, Globe Chair, 1963 | © Vitra Design Museum, photo: Jürgen Hans
As a whole, the exhibition offers a reassessment of plastic in today’s world that is both critical and differentiated. Interviews with designers, scientists, and activists underline the importance of an interdisciplinary approach in which politics, industry, science, and design collaborate closely to tackle the plastic problem. While it is true that each of us is a catalyst for change, there will be no simple remedy to this issue. For this reason, the exhibition aims to address the bigger picture of plastic and its complex role in our world: by analysing how we came to be so dependent on plastics, by showing how we can change this, and by reimagining possible futures for this contested material.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a comprehensive publication including several essays, reprints of key texts about the history of plastic, and conversations with Jane Atfield, Diana Cohen, Rolf Fehlbaum, John McGeehan, Klarenbeek & Dros, Shellworks, and others.
The Ocean Cleanup, crew sorting plastic on deck after System 002 extraction,
October 2021 © The Ocean Cleanup
Marco Cagnoni, Plastic Culture / Vertical Bioplastic Farm, 2018; Photo: Nicole Marnati
After its presentation at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein (26.03.2022–04.09.2022), Plastic: Remaking Our World will travel to the V&A Dundee (29.10.2022–05.02.2023) and MAAT in Lisbon (Spring 2023).
@vitradesignmuseum
design.museum.de