Transit Cases: Chairs from Mexico

Transit Cases: Chairs from Mexico // Traveling exhibition

The exhibition is currently on view at the Instituto de México, Madrid, Spain, from December 18th, 2008 to February, 2009 and will travel to other cities in Europe during 2009.

Transit Cases: Chairs from Mexico is a traveling exhibition curated and designed by Emiliano Godoy, Jimena Acosta and Renata Fenton and promoted by the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Among the designers and artists that participate in the exhibition are Adriana Domínguez, Yesica Escalera, Héctor Esrawe, Ezequiel Farca, Héctor Galván, José García Torres, Marlies Gelens, Emiliano Godoy, Mathias Goeritz, Ernesto Gómez Gallardo, Bernardo Gómez-Pimienta, Óscar Hagerman, Mauricio Lara, Cecilia León de la Barra, Daniel Mont, NEL colectivo, Edgar Orlaineta, Liliana Ovalle, Abraham Peyret, Clara Porset, Luis René Quintero, Dení Reye, Kanya Rodríguez, Karla Vázquez

Transit Cases: Chairs from Mexico draws a map of relationships among different material and social territories. Simultaneously, the exhibition generates juxtapositions and contrasts between contemporary pieces and a few historical references, acknowledging the prehispanic, colonial and modern heritages in contemporary design.

This exhibition brings together various furniture-making strategies. The first one is designers’ response to particular geographical situations, specific architectural projects and social dynamics. A second strategy is the inclusion of vernacular chairs, which have been part of Mexican daily life, accompanied by initiatives that insert those objects into new consumption circuits. A third one deals with the author’s subversion of the chair’s formal and functional canons. Thus, Transit Cases: Chairs from Mexico includes objects from a beach lounger, a university bench or a chromed corona chair, to a portable piece of staircase. Such tactics in Mexican design are articulated thematically under the following groups: By the Sea, Design for everyone, Design for a Few, Time for Leisure, Playful Attitudes and Spaces for Conversation.

Transit Cases shows a cut into Mexican contemporary design, contextualized by paradigmatic Twentieth century pieces. The title describes the exportation and itineration from one cultural territory to another, aiming to establish a conversation between different creative contexts.