"Totem and Taboo - complexity and relationship between art and design" is the title of an exhibition that focuses on the relationship between art and design. Since about the 1960s, artists have been openly making direct reference to objects or figures from the history of design and using or reflecting on design products in their works. Some prominent examples of such artists from this period are Donald Judd, Franz West and Richard Artschwager. Yet design too is increasingly adopting concepts from the field of art.

In temporal terms, the show focuses on a second generation of artists and designers working in this field. It features works by Martino Gamper, Florian Borkenhagen, Michael Sailstorfer, Clemence Seilles, Tatjana Trouvé, Jeppe Hein, Michaela Meise and Johannes Wohnseifer, Ettore Sottsass, Jerszy Seymour, Stephane Barbier Bouvet, Jörg Hundertpfund, Osko+Deichmann, and Judith Seng, among others.

From Milan the exhibition will travel to Berlin, where it will be shown during the DMY design festival from June 9 to 13 and the Berlin Biennale für zeitgenössische Kunst (Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art) from June 11 to August 8, 2010.

Totem and Taboo
Salone del Mobile 2010
Milan, Oratorio della Passione - Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio
The exhibition is open from April 14 to April 17, from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. and on
Sunday, April 18, from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Opening Tuesday, April 13 at 6.30 p.m.

www.totemandtaboo.net