ML - Michigan Avenue

2012 - Issue 6 - October

Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!

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PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF PAUL TAHON AND R&E BOUROULLEC ART FULL Clouds by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, 2008. encore, décor! THEIR BOUNDARY-PUSHING SENSIBILITIES TO THE MCA. BY THOMAS CONNORS FRENCH DESIGNERS RONAN AND ERWAN BOUROULLEC BRING T he Museum of Contemporary Art isn't in the habit of paying tribute to design, but this month it does just that. And it's no tweaky take on Midcentury Modern. Instead, Michael Darling, chief curator, is turning over the museum's primary galleries to a duo whose work is as much about space as it is the objects that populate it. "Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec: Bivouac" celebrates the investigations of the Brittany-born brothers, whose approach to design couples a keen interest in process and materials with a decidedly distinctive look. University-trained in art and design, the Bouroullecs began working together in 1997. Successful collaborators who are not above openly squab- bling, they have seen their creations realized by such leading companies as Cappellini, Alessi, and Vitra. Although the Bouroullecs have generated plenty of conventional products in unconventional modes (a chair with a knitted fabric skin that conforms to the user's body, a standing lamp that 68 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM reads like a patio umbrella), some of their most compelling projects are modular, architectural constructions that can flummox one's notions of form and function. Made of polystyrene, foam, fabric, and plastic, these ever-morphing elements (assembled at the consumer's discretion) can carve a room in two, hang from the ceiling, or clamber up a wall with no purpose other than to surprise and delight. "They are very interested in going to factories, talking to engineers, figur- ing out how things are made," notes Darling. In that way they line up with Eames, Nelson, and Prouvé, where the technique is as adventurous as the appearance. And since much of their work is user-driven, it relates to contem- porary art, where the viewer has to do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of making interpretations or interacting with a piece. Sounds heady, but don't fear—this stuff is fun. "Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec: Bivouac" runs from October 20 to January 20, 2013. 220 E. Chicago Ave., 312-280-2660; mcachicago.org MA

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