Design At Large

Design Miami/ Basel 2014

Design At Large, a new addition to Design Miami/ Basel, was created to offer an exhibition platform for ambitious, large-scale works of historical and contemporary design that transcend the framework of the traditional gallery booth. The program aims to showcase boundary-crossing practices that shake up the category of design, whether via interactive installations, performance, micro- architecture, advanced new technology or experimental materials. Each installation is supported by one of the exhibiting galleries of Design Miami/ Basel. The show is presented under the soaring central oculus of the Messe Basel, designed by the architects Herzog & de Meuron.

Each edition of Design At Large will be organized by a new curator selected not only for his or her expertise with design, but also for knowledge of external, related domains of knowledge – such as fashion, art, music or science. For this inaugural edition, the American collector and creative director Dennis Freedman has selected six designers and artists at different stages of their careers, including one significant historical project.

The central theme of Freedman’s exhibition is mutation and metamorphosis: how can a work of design simultaneously be fixed and fluctuating, permanent and temporary, expressive of an artistic intent yet also open to chance and surprise? In the polychromatic fiber installation of Sheila Hicks, the mechanized drawings of Eske Rex, the interactive digital display of Dominic Harris, the uncanny architectural environment of Anton Alvarez, the cinched wooden bench of Chris Kabel and the utopian housing of Jean Benjamin Maneval, design is revealed to be not a stable and eternal proposition, but a practice dependent on constant change.