Here We Are! Women in Design 1900 – Today
Here We Are! Women in Design 1900 – Today









Here We Are! Women in Design 1900 – Today is an exhibition as multifaceted as the developments and ongoing debates on feminism in our society. The comprehensive exhibition of over 100 exhibits showcases pioneering projects of women in design along the last decade and is divided into four chronological chapters.
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Since it was conceived as a travelling exhibition, the show had to be designed so it could easily be assembled, dismantled, stored and shipped several times. It is conceived to be suitable for museum spaces of many shapes and sizes, and is accompanied by a detailed manual for every installation element. Lastly, due to the ongoing research in the field, it was designed to grow at further venues.
For each of the four acts, Nathalie Opris developed a unique aesthetic, citing the spirit of the respective period through the use of colour, shape and lighting. The first chapter, showcasing designs from the 19th century until 1920, incorporates a cool, industrial look with black and white podiums and a large-scale media installation showcasing the suffragette movement.The second room is metaphorically dominated by the patriarchal spirit of the Modernist period through the use of a blue paint color (4320N bleu céruléen 59) from the Le Corbusier collection on the central podium. The focus, however, remains clearly on female practitioners: the room showcases outstanding pieces of furniture by Modernist female designers including from the Bauhaus and is accompanied by a large, round projection – metaphorically rising at the horizon – with material by Charlotte Perriand, Aino Aalto and others.
The third space, covering the second wave of feminism from the 1950s to the 1980s, uses large surfaces in hot pink and neon red, symbolizing the emancipation and extravagance of the period. As a nod to the increasingly outspoken feminist discourse in the rapidly changing media, specific pieces are boldly spotlighted. In the fourth and final space, the present and third wave of feminism and its adjacent design protagonists take the stage. The biomorphically-shaped, overlapping podiums symbolize a diversification of design disciplines and the growth of a community differentiating itself from traditional understandings of design. The use of greens and blues stand for nature, intuition, technology and collectivism and form a fresh and immersive backdrop for the topics debated in the space.
Project Type
Exhibition Design (Travelling Exhibition) In-house at Vitra Design Museum as Team Lead Exhibition Design & Development, together with Stefani Fricker & René Herzogenrath
Photo Credit
Installation Views »Here We Are! Women in Design 1900 - today« © Vitra Design Museum, Photo: Christoph Sagel
Curation
In-house (Viviane Stappmanns, Nina Steinmüller, Susanne Graner)
Exhibition Graphic Design
In-house (Judith Brugger)
Duration
23.09.2021 – 06.03.2022, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein (GER)
Travelling Venues
18.06.2022 – 30.10.2022, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam (NL)
25.11.2022 – 14.05.2023, Gewerbemuseum Winterthur, Wintererthur (CH)
05.10.2023 – 07.01.2024, Museu del Disseny, Barcelona (ESP)
01.03.2024 – 01.09.24, Möbelmuseum Wien, Vienna (AUT)
16.10.2024 – 09.03.2025, Design Museum Brussels, Brussels, (B)
29.03.2025 – 28.06.2025, Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires (ARG)
Press