Heritage as a source of knowledge in artistic research and design education

The exhibition revisits the site of Les Immatériaux, a 1985 milestone ‘manifestation’ curated by French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard and design theorist Thierry Chaput and showcases an educational perspective to the research project Beyond Matter – Cultural Heritage on the Verge of Virtual Reality encapsulated in the MA Fellowshop Programme. The artistic assessment of the Programme reflects on the complex advantages of transformative co-design collaborations as a potent direction for practice-based art and design research, addressing the potential that designers and artists have in bridging different domains. The exhibition highlights selected aspects of the design process and outcomes of co-design methodologies employed during the MA Fellowship Programme in particularly rich and insightful collaboration between Aalto University and the Centre Pompidou. Throughout this interdisciplinary experiment resulting in the concept design for The Virtual Exhibition of Les Immatériaux, designers, curators and art historians worked closely together and generously shared their knowledge to build a common space of inspiration and understanding.

Many hands and minds have contributed to the research, thinking, learning and material and immaterial outcomes that are part of this exhibition. Some of the works in the exhibition are based on elements created during the concept design phase by MA Fellows Niklas Alenius, Punit Hiremath, Edoardo Piroddi and Jiaxin Tao, as well as archival material from Kandinsky Library.

Displayed at Dipoli Gallery, Aalto University from 22.09-23.11.23.

The information on artistic outputs in the Aalto Research Portal follows the reporting guidelines of Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture. Therefore, each contribution requiring independent artistic activity is reported separately. For full details of the work and its contributors, please refer to information provided by the publisher.