Wednesday 24 December 2008

Ron Arad at the Pompidou Centre in Paris



For the first time in France, the Centre Pompidou dedicates a retrospective exhibition to the British industrial designer and architect Ron Arad. Today his works are everywhere, so it was a natural decision by the Centre Pompidou which has been a pioneering space for the presentation of the most outstanding contemporary designers, with exhibitions dedicated to Ettore Sottsass, Philippe Starck, Charlotte Perriand in the past, to have this exhibition.

Born in Tel Aviv and trained at the Jerusalem Academy of Art, followed by the Architectural Association School in London, Ron Arad settled in London in 1973, where he has since produced a very varied range of creative objects based on sinusoidal, elliptical and oval forms, as unique pieces, limited series and mass-produced objects.

The name of Ron Arad immediately conjures up pieces such as the Bookworm bookcase (1993) and the Tom Vac chair (1997), but his surprising work goes beyond any easy classification and expresses a free creative spirit working without constrictions or frontiers in design, architecture and the plastic arts. Ron Arad defines himself as belonging to "No discipline".The retrospective of his work proposed by the Centre Pompidou presents major and emblematic works, prototypes accompanied by audiovisual documents, limited series and mass-produced objects, along with numerous architectural projects.