Photo by Shai Ben-Efraim

This new museum is fast becoming one of the most talked-about museums internationally. Here are exhibited designs in fashion, furnishings and living that are at the cutting edge of technology,  offering the viewer eye-opening and incredible ways to see these every-day items  through a different prism.

The Design Museum is a stunning example of innovative, imaginative architecture - both within and without.  Ribbons of steel, ranging in color from bright orange to darker brick, melting into a creamy chocolate- brown, encircle the building allowing light to filter in between the winding, sculptural shapes, giving one a feeling of light, airy movement.

Designed by Israeli-born, British architect Ron Arad, the elegant exterior introduces the viewer to the exciting exhibits within.   The entrance into the building is wide and inviting, a curving corridor leads to the display floors, which are accessible by elevator as well.

The prize-winning signage, black on off-white walls, is attractive and easy to read, in both English and Hebrew.

The current exhibition entitled “Post Fossil: Excavating the 21^st century Creation" was organized by Lidewij Edelkoort, considered a “guru” in forecasting design trends. This is an expanded version of the one that she curated for the 2121 Design Sight Museum in Tokyo last year.  More than sixty local and international designers are represented by ideas for the future which can be inspired by the archaic aesthetics, organic materials and poetic techniques of the past. The concept for this exhibition is to demonstrate a break with the materialistic mentality and a return to modest and earthbound matter: designs that look to the past to find inspiration for the future.        

There are amorphous shapes in organic materials such as hide, pulp, fiber and clay that break with conventional creations to challenge the rules.

We see  a giant white rabbit whose ears  are connected to the wooden legs of old furniture, leather rabbits and  bears, flowers shaped in veneer materials taken from nature, strange Golem-like creatures fashioned in clay, a chair made of paper and old rickshaw benches from China painted a brilliant red,  huge bubble-shaped, leather seats. And there are more items  to dazzle and excite the senses.

It is evident that this museum will continue to offer the public stimulating and innovative exhibits as it has already shown in the previous exhibit, “Mechanical Couture,” which incorporated technological ideas to create forms and concepts to realize fresh, unique and original products.

In that unusual exhibit, designers used and even invented new machines to create advanced forms of a variety of items, including clothes inspired by machinery, products created as a result of machinery processes and a host of other futuristic creations by designers of international repute. One of the most incredible items on display was a dress that actually played music as the wearer moved and another consisting of a group of very oddly-contoured-shoes, designed specifically for the wearer. Those designers envisioned a future technological world that will change the way we shape our ideas into the next century.

Undoubtedly, The Design Museum in Holon is a new and thrilling firmament in the international museum galaxy, one we shall hear more about in the years to come.                          

A note of special interest:  the Museum Café is splendid. The food is delicious and the décor is designed to delight the eye and the soul, perfectly suited to its environment.

Design Museum Holon, 8 Pinhas Eilon St., 58459, Tel: 0732151515, info@dmh.org.il www.dmh.org.il