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The Museu del Disseny opens its doors

Housed in the Edifici Disseny Hub Barcelona, the new centre integrates the past, present and future of design in the city and opens with four permanent exhibitions which can be seen, free of charge, from the 14th of December to the 31st of January

The Barcelona Design Museum, or Museu del Disseny de Barcelona, opens its doors on the 14th of December. Housed within the Barcelona Design Hub building, or Edifici Disseny Hub, the new institution houses and extensive heritage of more than 70,000 objects pertaining to a variety of fields including historical and contemporary decorative art collections, graphic and textile art and product, graphic and fashion design.

This huge collection is the result of the integration of collections from the Decorative Arts Museum, the Pottery Museum, the Museum of Clothing and Textiles and the Graphic Arts Office – collections that coincide in their interest for objects, their use and their conception throughout the ages and in different societies from the 4th century B.C. up to the present day - the objective being to offer the general public an overall, versatile presentation on the subject that is open to numerous interpretations.

For the time being the museum’s offering has been divided into four permanent exhibitions that will remain for a period of five years as well as a temporary exhibition - a total of five exhibitions which, when combined, will offer the visitor a variety of approaches to the world of art, objects and design. The 1st floor houses From the World to the Museum, which includes a collection of industrial designs from 1930 to the present day, the majority of which originated or were produced in Catalonia, and which attempts to explain the reasons behind their having become part of local cultural heritage. Objects in this exhibition range from the non-drip oil bottles of Rafael Marquina up to the Garriris chair of Javier Mariscal.

The 2nd floor houses the exhibition Extraordinary!, which features decorative and auteur arts such as pottery, furniture, glassware, textiles, paper, glazes and jewellery from the 3rd to the 20th century.

The third floor houses a fashion exhibition entitled Dressing the Body which encompasses the birth of fashion and the relationship between the dress and the body from 1550 up to the present day and includes dresses from the French court of the 18th century up to pieces from the second half of the 20th century by Asunción Bastida and Paco Rabanne.

Dedicated to the pioneers of graphic design, the final permanent exhibition is called Graphic Design: from Trade to Profession. Covering the period from 1940 to 1980, the exhibition includes pharmaceutical advertising from the 1950s and book covers from the emblematic Edicions 62 collection “La cua de palla” as well as posters by Josep Pla-Narbona.

The temporary exhibition, which can be seen on the ground floor up until February 2015 is entitled Design for life and is the first in a series of exhibitions dealing with subjects relating to critical observation of the use of design and its contribution to the world we live in today. The exhibition in questions analyses a collection of Catalan and international products that have placed innovation and creativity at the service of the community and is an attempt to reflect on the changes that the concept of design has undergone in relation to society’s expectations.

In addition, the exhibition programme will be complemented by conferences, workshops, educational services, training courses and other activities and it will also be possible to visit the new Documentation Centre, which houses more than 20,000 documents that contribute to the richness and diversity of the world of design.

All of the aforementioned is now housed in the grandiose new centre designed by the MBM architecture team and which consists of 6000 m2 of exhibition space, 916 m2 of Documentation Centre and 2000 m2 designed exclusively for the safekeeping and conservation of the collections.

The Museu del Disseny de Barcelona will celebrate its inauguration on the 13th of December and the doors will open from the 14th of December to the 31st of January. More information is available here.

Publication date: Wednesday, 10 December 2014
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