21_21 DESIGN SIGHT

＞Download the exhibition flyer (PDF)

21_21 DESIGN SIGHT holds the exhibition "The Original" from 3 March, 2023. Takahiro Tsuchida, a design journalist, is Exhibition Director.

This Exhibition gathers designs that have exerted a deep influence on daily life. These we define as The Original. The Original, however, does not only signify the "beginning" of a history of making. Its role is also to stimulate and challenge later designers. The Original is endowed with a fascination to ensure its lasting influence, and its essence will remain long afterwards.

21_21 DESIGN SIGHT has organized previous exhibitions on the concept of "design making life richer and more enjoyable, with the power to expand possibilities of thought and action." Important designs influence each other, developing histories. Items assume different forms according to the needs of the time. Nowadays society and lifestyles change so fast that we risk forgetting the very essence of design work. We lack even the urge to seek it out, as all is drowned in the superfluity of information.

This Exhibition does not follow each fashion and trend. Instead, by reconsidering The Original, as a reference point and a clue to today's designs, we bring you timeless starting-points for design, and reveal links to the designers who created them.

Some 150 products designated as The Original are exhibited, selected by three forefront figures in today's design world, Takahiro Tsuchida as Exhibition Director, Naoto Fukasawa as Supervisor and Kaoru Tashiro as Planning Associate. The items range from furniture, tableware, and textiles to toys. Accompanying the objects they have chosen are images and texts, explicating the works, documenting the process of selection, and pointing out connections between the pieces on show. The exhibition philosophy is laid comprehensibly and enjoyably.

To investigate designs surrounding us closely is to realize how the finest sparks of creation come at the intersection of individual and social vision. This Exhibition will bring up attention to these works - The Original - in the hope of broadening thought and action, and assisting the birth of future design.