Futur Archaïque

The exhibition at Grand-Hornu, Belgium, explores the reappearance of archaic forms in design and the emerging but essential desire to reconnect with our roots.

The “Futur archaïque”exhibition presents the connection that currently exists between the immediate, short-term or even distant future and the past, the archaic – in the sense of returning to fundamental principles, (arkhē in ancient Greek means beginning); illustrated here from the perspective of design.

The exhibition highlights how young as well as not-so-young designers create objects that reveal our roots, which have been given a rough ride by modernity.

Futur Archaïque, Grand-Hornu, 2015, exhibition view

The 19th and 20th centuries saw the arrival and then the consecration of design. It began with the industrial revolution and the possibility for large‐scale manufacturing – the Thonet bistrot chair was the first to be mass-produced – and has continued via the Arts & Crafts movement until the post‐war design boom. For all its progress, reason and rationalisation however, over time modernity has abandoned by the wayside the intrinsic value of objects, their very essence and a certain form of aura. This has occurred both in the development of working drawings worthy of the Ulm School, of which Roger Tallon said, “If Ulm had continued, we would probably have ended up with a univocal formalisation aiming towards the “non‐object”, in a complete absence of visibility,” and in a material, formal, etc. one‐upmanship. Design has in some way been emptied of its sense or even its senses.

Nowadays, fundamental change is afoot! Instead of taking a negative attitude towards our roots, brushing them aside or even denying them, we are forced to admit that creators – artists, architects and above all designers – are working with and making the best of them, to create totally innovative, astounding objects. Such as the Jar by the designer duo Formafantasma made with a cow’s bone. These objects offer an insight into as yet subterranean social desires, but which are emerging in a whole range of fields.

A refreshing exhibition that explores the reappearance of these archaic forms in design, also implicit in this project is a sociological insight into these emerging but essential desires to reconnect with our roots. We can no longer contemplate the future without reconnecting to our roots, which constitute the foundations that support us. Whatever they may be! Those of the history of humanity and those which are closer to home, in our families.