Black and White: Designing Opposites

Opening Tuesday, 8 November 2011, 7 pm, Galerie Black and white polarize and are seen as radical and particularly expressive. The two colors are shaped by contrasts such as light and darkness or life and death. Common to both is a claim to absoluteness but also the expression of demarcation or distance, as well as protest. The ways in which they are used relate to specific cultural circles and are illustrated in various social phenomena. In architecture, design and fashion black and white generally stand for values such as abstraction, elegance and timelessness, but beyond this understanding there opens up an entire cosmos of motifs and cultural traditions. Thus design in black and white interprets this cultural spectrum or reformulates it. With its rich contrasts this exhibition explores the design potential of the outermost extremes in the spectrum of colors. Following an introduction to the cultural and social meaning the spotlight is turned on the idea, application and effect of black and white in architecture, design and fashion of modernism and the present day. Museum of Design Zurich