Quite often the best things that happen in life are the most unexpected. A good example is a small and compact yet interesting exhibition of objects currently on (until September 2014) at the Gervasuti Foundation in Venice (in Campo della Bragora, not far from the Arsenale). Entitled "Design Without Designers: Anonymous Solutions to Fundamental Problems", the event is curated by David Usborne, James Putnam and Lauren Jones.
A former teacher of design, Usborne is also a keen collector of rather unusual and at times bizarre objects that he favours for their mysterious or elegant shapes or key functions.
In 2010 Usborne published the volume Objectivity. A designer's Book of Curious Tools (Thames & Hudson; with a foreword by Thomas Heatherwick), a collection of puzzling objects with different functions (hitting, cutting, holding, moulding and so on…) divided in various contexts (Home, Farm, Hospital, Studio, Workshop, Factory, Boat and Sporsthall).
A selection of these objects were then exhibited in various locations in the UK and Portugal and part of the collection is now on display in Venice.
The best thing about it? Like Usborne's site the collection can be explored as if it were a game: visitors can look and guess what's the object on display and then discover if they were right.
There is a bit of everything to every taste and knowledge, from wire splints to doll moulds, turbine blade patterns, tooth shade guides (particularly fascinating actually…), plumbers' gauges and waste grinder blades. Though the exhibition is limited given the rather small spaces of the Foundation, it will be terribly fun to discover that the Edward Scissorhands-like claws you may be staring at with horror is actually a tool for carding or that the vaguely obscene sex toy-like object in front of you is actually a hernia truss.
Experimental and innovative, this exhibition may lead to interesting discoveries and also goes well with the theme of this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, "Fundamentals".
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