Paola Antonelli: Design Tangents Episode Twelve
From the welcoming nature of Milan Design Week to the themes of MoMA’s research and development salons, insight from one of the most influential voices in design
One of the most influential voices in design, the architect, author, editor and Design Emergency podcast co-host Paola Antonelli is the Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at NYC’s Museum of Modern Art, as well as the museum’s founding Director of Research and Development. Antonelli has been with MoMA since 1994—and she’s been a friend of COOL HUNTING for nearly two decades. Eloquent and always straight forward, she continues to set a standard for design curation. In our latest episode of Design Tangents, she touches upon her expansive work, the welcoming nature of Milan Design Week, the conflict of design for good versus design for violence, and so much more.
More than wax poetic, Antonelli’s musings are anchored in an understanding of the power of design. “Culture, creativity, design, architecture: they are not just luxuries or necessary, functional things,” she tells us. “They really are a way to deal with living together in a world that is more and more complex and hard to inhabit.”
“Design is a real force to be reckoned with,” she adds. “It’s an enzyme that helps with progress. Without design, great revolutions could not come to life.” Part of Antonelli’s mission is explaining that to public audiences, while preventing them from feeling like design is an elite term that’s out of touch. In fact, it all began with her MoMA exhibition Humble Masterpieces, wherein she explained to visitors that everyone has a museum-worthy design collection in their desk drawer.
Design is a real force to be reckoned with. It’s an enzyme that helps progress happen.
Paola Antonelli
In 2008, as the world was engulfed in a financial crisis, Antonelli grew tired of observing that, “whenever there is a crisis, culture is the first to be considered superfluous.” She felt that MoMA had an opportunity to show that culture could provide the nourishment that society needed—that it could be a testing ground for the way we will live in the future. “We can show that museums and other cultural institutions can be the R&D of society,” she says of the initial idea.
A few years later, MoMA began a research and development focus dedicated to this concept, with Antonelli at its helm. As a result, critically acclaimed MoMA R&D salons continue to tackle future-forward topics, from the tactile to abstract. Attendees are provided a reading list in advance and high-level dialogue commences. “We are showing the world that museums are life,” she adds.
To learn more about the salon series, Antonelli’s thoughts on her own podcasts, as well as insight on the current MoMA exhibition Life Cycles: The Materials of Contemporary Design, tune in to Design Tangents now.
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Design Tangents is presented by Genesis and produced and edited by SANDOW Design Group. Special thanks to the podcast production team: Rob Schulte and Rachel Senatore and to Amber Lin for creating our show art. Discover more design podcasts from SURROUND at surroundpodcasts.com.
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