ONTMOETING MET DESIGN + HEDENDAAGSE BRITSE GRAFIEK

In 1971 a furniture shop in Mechelen organized the exhibition 'Ontmoeting met Design' ('Meeting Design'), a group exhibition with chairs and seats designed by Le Corbusier, Michaël Thonet, Gerrit Rietveld, Marcel Breuer and others. The exhibition was intended to make some of the 19th and 20th-century classics of design more popular with the general public. It was therefore also accompanied by a conference on the democratization of design furniture. Jef Cornelis went to film the event and turned his footage into a television report. He provides a survey of the works on view and several speakers at the conference comment on the event. “Our eye is one of our least educated senses,” one of them briefly summarizes. 'Ontmoeting met Design' is followed by the television report 'Hedendaagse Britse Grafiek' ('Contemporary British Graphic Arts') about the exhibition with the same name in the International Cultural Centre in Antwerp. The programme presents etchings, sketches and silk screen prints by several artists, including Allen Jones, Richard Hamilton, Bridget Riley and David Hockney. The editing is unique: a summary of the works is followed by a long and dryly recited list of object the participating artist use in their works.