International designers round out NGV Triennial exhibition

Above: Manga series by Nendo. All images courtesy NGV.

An unprecedented and large-scale global exhibition of art, design and architecture will be showcased in the inaugural NGV Triennial, which opens on 15 December 2017.

Featuring more than 60 artists and designers from over 30 countries and free and exclusive to Melbourne, the triennial will include major presentations from international and Australian designers and artists across all four levels of NGV International.

Key designers listed in the lineup include:

Formafantasma (Italy)

Amsterdam-based design studio Formafantasma is among a handful of design practices shaping the future of design. Its work is characterised by deep material investigations resulting in the design of objects that disrupt the historical, political and social status quo.

For the NGV Triennial, Formafantasma will create a new body of research-driven work entitled Ore Streams 2017 that challenges us to consider the impacts of the global trade in rare earth metals for common consumer electronics such as smartphones and ‘above ground mining’, or electronic waste recovery methods. Ore Streams will be presented as a series of critical design objects made from various metals reclaimed from consumer electronic devices.

Formafantasma’s experimental practice hovers between design and contemporary art research, reflecting a critical approach to materials and their use in production and grappling with the specificities of sculptural language.

Ore Streams by Formafantasma.

Brodie Niell (Australia)

Tasmanian born, London based designer Brodie Neill’s recent investigations have focused on the environmental hazard and phenomenon of ocean plastic pollution.

Neill has consolidated a bold signature aesthetic over the past decade, defined by sinuous lines and Möbius-like sculptural forms. His design ethos embraces experimental digital design technologies to reflect organic forms and natural phenomena accentuated by a striking sensitivity to materials.

Neill has forged a strong international design presence evident in production pieces and high-profile projects for global brands Swarovski and Alexander McQueen to public sculptures and collectible edition pieces for galleries and private collectors.

Büro North (Australia)

Established in 2004 by Soren Luckins, Büro North is an interdisciplinary design practice specialising in wayfinding and graphic environments. Driven by the desire to create better futures by design, Büro North deliver creative and experiential interactions primarily focussed on the execution of innovative ideas.

Forming a key component of the NGV Triennial, Büro North will create a digital media environment: a multi-use, ambient and flexible platform for the exchange of ideas drawn from across the NGV Triennial. This conceptual space will compel audience interaction and immersion within the NGV Triennial’s key themes: body, change, movement, time and virtual.

Büro North will work in association with an international network of thought leaders invited by NGV to explore critical issues and ideas of our contemporary world as theme curators. Conceived as an incubator for research and creating the conditions for engaged discourse, the space will house interactive multimedia and cross-platform content, including interviews and essays, podcasts and social media content, poetry, film and infographics, appealing to a broad range of audiences.

Estudio Campana (France), Yarrenyty Arltere (Australia) and Elliat Rich (Australia)

For the NGV Triennial, brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana will exhibit Vitória Régia 2017 in collaboration with Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, the Centre for Appropriate Technology and Alice Springs-based designer Elliat Rich. Drawing upon shared motifs from across cultures and geographies referencing waterways, the collaboration will present a vividly colorful upholstered dome, a meeting point and resting place to welcome visitors to the NGV Triennial.

Vitória Régia is a major new acquisitive commission investigating the possibilities for large-scale making, merging furniture technology at an architectural scale with intricately embroidered embellishment from the Yarrenyty Arltere Artists.

Evoking the colour and creative chaos of São Paulo in Brazil, the Campana brothers create exuberant yet thoughtful design work that celebrates the triumph of simple solutions in a complex world. Since 1983, the influential design collaboration has achieved international recognition as one of the world’s most progressive and successful design studios.

Vitória Régia 2017 by Estudio Campana, Yarrenyty Arltere artists and Elliat Rich in collaboration.

Nendo (Japan)

One of Japan’s most acclaimed designers, Oki Sato is founder and chief designer of Japanese design studio Nendo. Since 2002, the studio has produced inspired and arresting graphic, product, furniture, installation and interior design that fulfil Nendo’s mandate to deliver small moments of sudden insight.

The NGV Triennial will present a major new acquisition of 50 Manga chairs 2015 and 50 Trace sconce lights 2016 by Nendo. This whimsical presentation represents the only international purchase of the full Manga series – a significant addition to the NGV’s contemporary design collection.

Each of 50 standard chairs is reimagined with a design element drawn from Manga; effect lines, speech bubbles and symbols to visualise emotion are incorporated into the chairs’ stainless steel frames to create a stunning installation that invokes endless imagined narratives.

Manga series by Nendo.

teamLab (Japan)

Founded by Toshiyuki Inoko, teamLab is an art collective and interdisciplinary creative group based in Tokyo, Japan comprising over 300 members. Identifying as ultra-technologists, teamLab collaborates with leaders in various fields of digital practice including artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians, architects, web and print graphic designers and editors.

For the NGV Triennial, teamLab will premiere a new interactive and fully immersive digital installation inspired by human, digital and spatial relationships and connections, commissioned by
the NGV. Expressing these themes through the turbulent lens of the vortex, teamLab will transform a large gallery space into an enveloping environment of swirling illumination that responds as water would to human presence and movement.

This work, inspiring a sense of awe and wonderment in the viewer, melds digital design with contemporary art practices to extend teamLab’s explorations into the digitisation of natural phenomenon.

Yayoi Kusama (Japan)

Yayoi Kusama has become one of the most celebrated and prolific living artists in the world today. With a practice encompassing performance, experimental film, painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, fashion, literature, and public spectacles (or ‘happenings’) over some 60 years, Kusama has been widely acknowledged as a major influence on several generations of contemporary artists.

Renowned for her vibrant, immersive installations that explore the concept of the infinite, Yayoi Kusama uses obsessive patterning to reference a series of optical hallucinations she had as a young girl that came to define her life and idiosyncratic style.

Kusama is collaborating with the NGV to create a new work for the triennial which has been acquired for the collection. This unique participatory work for children and families invites visitors to enter the world of the artist. Flower obsession 2016 –17 recreates a furnished domestic space inside the gallery within which visitors are invited to apply flower stickers and plastic three- dimensional flowers to the walls, floor and objects. Over the course of the exhibition, the proliferation of flowers will gradually cover all of the surfaces, ‘obliterating’ them.

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Occurring every three years and supported by the Victorian Government through the Creative State strategy, the NGV Triennial is an ongoing exhibition series and considered one of the most ambitious projects in the NGV’s history. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach to the display of art and design, the Triennial will explore the social, cultural, scientific and physiological terrains of our contemporary world.