Perception

Max Enrich, Proyecto Rastro, Photographer: David Leon Fiene

Perception, an exhibition presenting furniture, audio and video works of 16 designers held during Barcelona Design Week 2018. The show, focusing on reflection and community, and inviting the visitors to touch, smell, listen, look, taste but above all feel, was curated by Sanna Völker.

The idea was born following discussions about how the experience of visiting design exhibitions and showrooms has changed due to social media and online purchasing. Have we become lazy and spoiled by scrolling through hundreds of new products everyday? Do we still understand, and appreciate, the complexity of a designed product and its making? And what about the live experience, human interaction with our surroundings, the touch and tactility of the objects?

With human senses as a starting point, the idea of an installation that would engage visitors physically and emotionally was developed. The exhibition explored subjects such as the senses, the process of creation, the impact the object has on its user, the user impact on the object, and included interactive works, where a presence of a visitor was a necessary factor to finish the piece.

The exhibition accompanied by sound installation by Matias Bieniaszewski, who converted the sounds of the designed objects into a musical piece, took place at Ox Poblenou. The gallery located in an industrial building gave the visitors the chance to experience the contrast between the raw, factory-like surroundings and a completely white, luminous exhibition space on the fifth floor. Overlapping semi-translucent curtains were in constant movement due to the soft breeze that together with the sunlight has created dramatic shades of metallic patterns, glass surfaces and water along the floors.

The aim of Perception was to tell a story that goes beyond the experience of a snapshot. No images of the exhibition were being published before or during the show, in order for the visitors to experience the installation without preconceptions and to allow them to create their own conclusions and impressions.