4UDECOR - Esteve na Exposição de Ron Arad, Paris

Mas é no seu mobiliário que Arad deixa seu humor e talento através do olhar: o tonto, bouncy espiral pendurado luzes; o relógio maluco que parece um insecto gigante mutante preto projetando agora na parede, os famosos em forma de caracol "Este Mortal Bobina "estante; bulbosa o" Big Easy "em uma variedade de poltronas (duro) materiais; o escultural balançar das chaise longues que são nada mais do que duas alças, e assim por diante. Muitas destas cadeiras, incluindo as chaise longues e as cadeiras de costas direitas de molas que possuem ângulos agudos que parecem sentar-se impossível, mas a exposição comprova essa impressão errada, permitindo que os visitantes se sentem à vontade para experimentarem essa sensação (outra raridade a mostrar num museu).

Ron Arad, nasceu em Israel em 1951, vive e trabalha agora em Londres, é infinitamente inventivo, e ao mesmo tempo ele tem, obviamente, uma tendencia para as formas arredondadas. Ele também está interessado no som: a exposição está cheia de efeitos sonoros, e uma de suas invenções mais divertidas é um sistema estéreo e um conjunto de oradores utilizando cimento e metal enferrujado. Arad executa constantemente experiências com os materiais e as mais recentes tecnologias e nossa necessidade de uma aparencia bonita exterior para esconder o funcionamento interno das coisas é especialmente pertinente no contexto da construção do Centro Pompidou, projectado "de dentro para fora" por Renzo Piano e Richard Rogers, com suas "entranhas" expostas.

Alice Rawsthorn, critica de design do jornal International Herald Tribune, levou o Centro Pompidou à tarefa para a escolha de Arad bem como o tema de uma exposição, uma vez que o seu trabalho está intimamente ralacionado com a estética "numa altura em que o design é dominado por complexos desafios políticos , como resolver a crise ambiental e capacitar os mais pobres 90 por cento da população mundial para quem os designers são tradicionalmente ignorados. "

Esta exposição vai viajar depois para o Museu de Arte Moderna de Nova York (28 julho-19 de outubro de 2009) e posteriormente para o Stedelijk Museum, em Amsterdam (primavera 2010).

Centre Pompidou: Place Georges Pompidou, 75004 Paris. Tel.: 01 44 78 12 33.

Aberto das 11h até às 21h. Encerra às terças-feiras e 1 Maio.

Metro: Rambuteau.

Entrada: € 10 - € 12. Até de 16 Março.

An explosion of sheer exuberance greets visitors to the Centre Pompidou’s new show of designer Ron Arad’s work: exuberant swooping lines and exuberant colors in an exuberant presentation designed by Arad himself. If this show doesn’t bring a smile to your face, nothing will.

The great thing about this exhibition is that it is more than just a collection of furniture and objects displayed like individual jewels. This is a rare instance in which the design of the show itself is almost as interesting as the objects on display, with the space broken up by the sweeping curves of architectural elements.

Even Arad’s architectural projects – a handsome design museum set to open in 2009 in Holon, Israel, for example – are entertainingly presented through models, films and images on plasma screens. Reconstructed elements of his built projects, including the foyer and staircase for the Tel Aviv Opera House (1994), are also included.

But it is in his furniture that Arad lets his wit and talent shine through: the loopy, bouncy spiral hanging lamps; the crazy clock that looks like a giant mutant black insect projecting the time on the wall; the famous snail-shaped “This Mortal Coil” bookcase; the bulbous “Big Easy” armchairs in a variety of (hard) materials; the sculptural rocking chaises longues that are nothing more than two loops; and so on and so on. Many of his chairs, including the chaises longues and straight-backed chairs on springs that lean forward at acute angles, look impossible to sit on, but the exhibition proves that impression wrong by allowing visitors to actually sit in some of them (another rarity in a museum show).

Arad, who was born in Israel in 1951 and now lives and works in London, is endlessly inventive, and while he obviously has a penchant for rounded, amorphous forms, he does not limit himself slavishly to them. He is also interested in sound: the exhibition is filled with sound effects, and one of his more amusing inventions is a stereo system and speakers set inside crumbling concrete cases with rusty metal supports, a nice comment on our obsession with high-tech materials (Arad himself constantly experiments with them and with the latest technologies) and our need for handsome exteriors to hide the inner workings of things – especially pertinent in the context of the Centre Pompidou’s building, designed “inside-out” by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, with its innards exposed.

Alice Rawsthorn, the design critic for the International Herald Tribune, has taken the Centre Pompidou to task for its choice of Arad as the subject of an exhibition, because his work is concerned with aesthetics “at a time when design is dominated by complex political challenges, like defusing the environmental crisis and empowering the poorest 90 percent of the global population whom designers have traditionally ignored.”

This show will travel to the Museum of Modern Art in New York (July 28-October 19, 2009) and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (spring 2010).

Centre Pompidou: Place Georges Pompidou, 75004 Paris. Tel.: 01 44 78 12 33. Open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Closed Tuesday and May 1. Métro: Rambuteau. Admission: €10-€12. Through March 16. www.centrepompidou.fr/