BETWEEN WISHES AND REALITY – The furniture industry and design in Croatia 1945 – 1990
MUO – Museum of Arts and Crafts, Zagreb, Croatia
9.7. – 18.8.2019.
By: Barbara Zec
If you’re interested in the mid to late 20th century furniture, this exhibition is for you. It functions well on two levels. First is an educational one – because it teaches visitors about history behind Croatian industrial furniture between 1945 and 1990. It finally reveals the names behind familiar pieces, the same pieces that bring me to the second level – the emotional one. Because if you are local and grew up before 1990s you’ll remember that “my uncle had a chair just like that!”, or “my cousins had the same room like this on the picture! Down with the last detail!”. For others, it is an excellent opportunity to notice the similarities between Croatian furniture and furniture in other countries at the same period. The same technology and trends lead to the similar solutions.
The exhibition focuses on factory-made furniture in the given period and showcases original exhibits as well as technical drawings and other graphic material – adverts, photo and video material. It’s hard not to notice the quality of the materials, especially the quality of original textiles which is extremely rare today. Some pieces older than 40 years are still looking brand new. And we are talking about armchairs, which were (or still are) used daily because many exhibits are borrowed from private collectors. At the end of the exhibition space, near the exit, one can read the impressum as well as a list of people who shared their pieces and made the exhibition possible. Many of them were also active in the shaping the furniture industry, domestic approach to design and designing the pieces. One downside is you can’t try the furniture, and sit on it. It would be nice to see if and which pieces are not only aesthetically pleasing but functional, too.
The exhibition is placed in one of the temporary exhibition spaces of MUO, just straight forward and down the stairs. Visitors less familiar with the place could easily became confused when entering the main hall because the way finding to the furniture exhibition is non-existent. So, just straight forward and down the stairs. (The large, main temporary exhibition space of the Museum of Arts and Crafts is currently occupied by the exhibition of Russian avant-garde artist and photographer Alexander Rodchenko.)
Part of the exhibition is dedicated to the culture and importance of design in general. The emphasis was on educating consumers about arranging furniture and making a functional and “stylish” home. Later, this approach evolved to more serious goal – to position design as one of the most important parts of industrial production and doing that by establishing “a higher-education institution for training designers” and including designers in the process. (By the end of 1980s, a higher institution, a.k.a. Faculty of Design in Zagreb was established.) The idea gathered some of the most important people of Croatian architecture, design and visual communications, like Bernardo Bernardi, Vjenceslav Richter, Radoslav Putar and Radovan Ivančević.
One of the aims of this exhibition was to gather the furniture and documentation and hopefully that will be an ongoing process. It would be nice to see this exhibition grow to fill the main stage in the MUO (and beyond). It is definitely possible, especially now, when many are tired of the same generic design and mixing it with older, timeless pieces to give some character and warmth to their places. Until then, enjoy the view and appreciate your old furniture – as a piece of design and as a piece of history.
