Notes for a guided visit to the exhibition “From the world to the museum: product design, cultural heritage.”

Having detected a problem of both narrative and format in the exhibition “From the world to the museum: product design, cultural heritage,” in the Design Museum of Barcelona, and with a will to contrast and document the existing information on the objects displayed, this project provides some notes that can serve as a guide for an alternative visit to the exhibition, starting with the contextualization of the some of its objects and the development of a new narrative discourse.

Pictures:

1. Pablo Neruda and Matilde Urrutia seated in the Isla Negra chair, design by Germán Rodríguez Arias, member of G.A.T.C.P.A.C. and the M.I.D.V.A., forced into exile in Chile after the Spanish Civil War. The chair, one of Neruda’s favourites, was produced by Muebles Sur, a company founded likewise by Catalans living in exile in Santiago de Chile. © Sara Facio
2. Pere Pi riding a Montesa Cota 247, the motorcycle that Montesa would develop to compete with the Bultaco model, and with which they would triumph in the competitive world, winning with drivers Pedro Pi and Don Smith the championships in Spain and Europe, respectively. cc Wikipedia, no photographer details.
3. BAMIX hand mixer, from the brand ESGE, presented in 1955 in the exhibition fair in Hannover and which would prove the first achetype of this product. © ESGE
4. Mascot for the Barcelona Olympic Games, created by Javier Mariscal in 1989 and later developed by the studio Trias-Quod Design, whose work discomfited the Valencian designer due to the rigid expression on the resulting character’s face. In the photo it appears, as a key ring, in the exhibition “Pep Bonet & La Vulgaridad.” “Come and see my latest designs and admire various objects from the day-to-day world that rolls around us” took place in La Sala Vinçon in 1992. © Manel Armengol