Design and Zurich (6/2)

There is a design museum in Zurich, somehow connected to a design school, and the design museum was high on my list of things to do in Zurich. After my milchkaffee and chocolate croissant, I made my way on the tram system to the design museum (Museum für Gestaltung). By the way, it appears that Zurich doesn’t have an underground system like I’ve encountered in other European cities, like Munich and Hamburg, but it does have an above-ground tram system. I like it because I can see the sights as I travel on the tram – and also know sooner than I do underground when I’m in the wrong place. The design museum is in the northwest part of the city – an area I hadn’t been in yet, so I was charting out a new way to go somewhere.

The museum is in a modern building near one of the rivers that, at that point, runs horizontally across the city. Again, my entry fee was waived because I have a Zurich/tourist card.  I entered a world of high design presented by the atelier oï, which is a Swiss design firm.  I’m deliberately not capitalizing the name of the firm because that’s how they spell their name. There were three different “hangings” from the ceiling in the exhibit hall – fascinating.  One looked as if it were made of origami birds or flowers. Another looked like wooden fans. Can’t remember the third, but all three were imaginative and airy. There were chairs, lights, tables, and other items made by this firm – unusual, but mostly practical and attractive. One of their designs involved using cotton (?) cording about ¾” in diameter.  Sometimes the cording was stuffed with wire and sometimes it was left loose and floppy. This cording – in bright colors – was used to make chairs, tables, and “unifying” lines.  Fascinating! On the second floor was a “room” that encircled the top of this exhibit hall and allowed people in the room to peek out at the ceiling of the hall. (I got a closer view of the “hangings” that way. It was set up as a sort of lounge where people could eat lunch purchased at the café on the main floor, and children could play in a designated (by toys) play area.

In the basement were two rooms that were permanent exhibits.  In one room was an exhibit of the design of everyday things. One wall had clothing and shoes – not of any particular era, but interesting regardless.  In drawers (like the drawers in the textile section of the De Young Museum in SF) were wonderful textiles. The rest of the room had examples of designs of all kinds of things – phones, irons, record players/tape players/CD players/audio players, cameras, puppets, a bicycle – all kinds of things. There were also more drawers. One of them had examples of violins. There were photos, ceramics, all kinds of things in the drawers.  I was thinking how much they expanded their museum space by using the drawers for display.  Anyway, I found this room really interesting. I always like seeing how design has evolved, and how form and function must be taken into consideration.

In the other basement room was an exhibit of Swiss furniture design from about 1900 to the present. Again, it was fascinating to see what looked comparatively modern in the early 20^th century, and how it became more “modern” as time went by. What we think of as mid-century modern went through several iterations to get there. And it was interesting to hear the thinking behind the current design, which is light, multi-functional, and easy to move from one place to another for the “urban nomads” (their description) of today, moving frequently from one place to another.

I was confused about the rest of the museum because my ticket referred to floors and exhibits that didn’t seem to be in the building I was in.  As it turned out, they weren’t.  The museum is across two buildings, separated by about a mile.  I received directions to take a tram from the current location to a second location.  I waited for the tram, and the designated one never appeared. But another one kept coming by, so I took it about 2/3s of the way, and got out to explore a “Zuri West” food and product hall.  It turned out this was something like the Markthalle that I found in Basel – and that had been in Freiburg last fall..  It’s a big hall with booths of food of different kinds or from different countries.  I spied a booth selling Argentinian empanadas and, after circling around, I went back for empanadas, my favorite food from Chile. These WERE Argentinian, not Chilean, empanadas – good, but not Chilean.  Alas! Even so, I enjoyed them. Then I went on to Part 2 of the museum.

There were two main exhibit halls. The first displayed all kinds of design projects. One was a textile design, and the exhibit showed how the designed created his designs with hot wax on a special kind of paper (to begin with) – probably a “resist” process. Then, once the design is created, he puts in a “repeat” so the design will continue on the fabric. As someone who sews, I found it interesting to hear the thought process behind the repetition, and whether it would be at the same place – or in another place – on the design. The exhibit followed the development of the design until it is actually printed on the cloth, with one color printed at a time. Another exhibit followed a company’s creation of work clothes – a casual wardrobe – for its workers.  The criteria were that the clothing, aside from being comfortable and attractive, had to be sustainable and biodegradable. After doing some research, the company found flax, hemp and modal (the latter made from wood pulp) growing within a reasonable distance. They chose weaving for the fabric that would be durable and comfortable, and used dyes that were non-toxic.  The ONLY thing they put on the clothing that wasn’t biodegradable was a screw-on button.  The instructions were that when it was time to dispose of the clothing, you were to unscrew (and re-use?) the button, and toss away the clothing. Between the growing of the fiber, the processing and weaving of the fiber, and the construction of the clothing, everything took place within 2500 kilometers of Zurich. Other exhibits included making jewelry from bicycle tires (the inner tubes in them), a typography exhibit, more chairs and lamps, and the development of the symbol – the trademark, I guess – for the Swiss airlines. (You would recognize it if you saw it – a variation on the Swiss flag, but what was interesting was the number of iterations this design – and lettering – went through before the design became what it is now.

The final room was an exhibition of protest posters from the 20^th – and some from the 21^st – centuries. There was a documentary that showed any number of protests, worldwide, chronologically from MLK’s “I have a dream” speech at the march (1963? Or before?) through protests of Trump last year. But the protests were all over the world. That was the backdrop for this FABULOUS exhibit of protest posters from roughly that same time period. The art was superb, and the messages were direct, powerful, and emphatic.  I took a picture of one that was not intended as a protest poster, but instead was a proposed logo for Donald Trump.  The four Ts are juxtaposed in a square, and they leave a swastika in the center. There are Che Guevara, Salvador Allende, anti-Bush, anti-Viet Nam War, anti-Nixon, and many other posters.  It was amazing. Whew!

Before I left, I went through a brief exhibit on Black Mountain College (I hope I have the name right) in North Carolina, where Buckminster Fuller developed that dome, and at least one other person of note was on the faculty.  Apparently, John Cage taught music there for a while.  Anyway, when Yale grabbed Fuller and the other notable, the college went into a decline and finally closed. The exhibit was there as a reminder of the role art and design played in the curriculum of at least one institution of higher education at one point in time.

I went on from there to an aqueduct I had seen while riding on a tram.  It crosses a part of the city from north to south.  Part of the aqueduct – the open areas under the aqueduct – have been transformed into shops and restaurants for a piece of the aqueduct. I went to explore.  It is a creative area with interesting shops. At one place, the aqueduct goes by a park, and there is playground equipment, as well as play spaces for a variety of ages. There are bars and cafes so parents can socialize with a “cuppa” while the kids are playing. The park was full, as were the bars and cafes, on this lovely day. I decided to have an early dinner (right on time for the U.S.) at a restaurant in the aqueduct, and was able to eat at an outside table. It was delightful! I saw a group of about six women – roughly 50ish – meeting for dinner, and it made me homesick for my women’s group.

From there, I had a bit of difficulty figuring out where to stand for the right tram back to where I’m staying. That’s the most confusing part about the trams.  There are specific locations to wait, and where they are is not always clear. Anyway, I made it!