Graphic design merging with art at Siemens

ISTANBUL

Siemens Sanat is hosting the exhibition titled ‘Playgrounds,’ which presents a series of graphic design practices that cross over the fine line between art and design.

Siemens Sanat’s latest exhibition, titled “Playgrounds,” is presenting a series of graphic design practices that violates the boundary between art and design. Curated by Sinan Niyazioğlu, the exhibition opened on March 7 and will continue through May 9. The exhibition hall is open between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m on weekdays.

The exhibition relies on the claim that experimental graphic design works of today are also a topic of contemporary art, with transdisciplinary production erasing the boundaries between art and design. Dutch typeface designer Rene Knip refers to this situation as his “playground,” while his Iranian colleague describes it as “mashq” (practice) and Israeli graphic designer Oded Ezer remarks on the “amazing boundaries.” German illustrator Thomas Müller explains this situation with these words: “The typefaces I ‘produce’ for my clients evolve out of the typefaces I ‘create’ for myself.” As a result, some of the graphic designers define the process of creating experimental works as a spontaneously evolving theme that branches from the project at hand into an experimental one, while some other graphic designers consider their experimental production as a routine exercise that demands the same consideration as their real projects.

“Playgrounds” is curated with a view that displays both how present-day designs, through new inventions, are appended to the visual cultural memory of the countries in which they were produced, and the transdisciplinary applications of these works in the various media of artistic tendencies such as installation, public art, street art, and environmental art. The exhibition contains a select number of experimental works from Grafist Archive, which comprises works by world-renowned designers who have been invited throughout the years to Grafist: International Istanbul Graphic Design Week.

The transdisciplinary dimension is presented in the work of Rene Knip from Netherlands, Touching Graphic Design Video Selection (who’s work on the prominent graphic designers of the Netherlands presents Experimental Jetset, Maureen Mooren and Daniel van der Velden, LUST, Irma Boom, Stuart Bailey, Joop van Bennekom, Felix Janssens, Mevis and Van Deursen, Julia Born, Roma Publications, Will Holder, and Karel Martens), Alan Fletcher and Patrick Thomas from Britain.