A Large-Scale Touring Exhibition Entering the World of Marimekko Starts. Report on 'Marimekko Exhibition: The Power of Patterns' (Kyoto City Museum of Kyoto Culture)
A large-scale touring exhibition celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Finnish design house Marimekko has opened in Kyoto.Summary
A large-scale touring exhibition celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Finnish design house Marimekko, titled 'Marimekko Exhibition: The Power of Patterns', has opened at the Kyoto City Museum of Kyoto Culture. The exhibition runs until September 6 and is scheduled to tour other venues, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum and the Hiroshima Museum of Art, over the next two years. Marimekko was founded in 1951 by Alvar and Viljo Rautio in Finland. The brand name 'Marimekko' means 'Mary's dress' in Finnish. During the post-war reconstruction period, when people sought positive beauty, Alvar Rautio hired young artists like Maija Isola as fabric designers, releasing bright and bold prints one after another. In 1960, the brand gained worldwide fame when Jacqueline Kennedy, the future First Lady of the United States, wore a Marimekko dress. In 1964, Isola created 'Unikko', which would become an iconic pattern. The exhibition features over 3,500 designs created to date, spreading from fashion to tableware and interiors. The core of the exhibition is based on the words Alvar Rautio wrote in her diary at age 14: 'The only responsibility is beauty. The only reality is a dream. The only power is love.' Guided by these three words—'Beauty, Dream, Love'—the exhibition illuminates Marimekko's aesthetic of creation and the inherited printmaking techniques through approximately 70 dresses, artworks, fabrics, and valuable materials from the Marimekko headquarters and the Helsinki Architecture and Design Museum.
(Source：Tokyo Art Beat)