{"id":936836,"date":"2026-10-22T11:24:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T11:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936836\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T11:24:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T11:24:20","slug":"design-meets-spirituality-and-a-shaken-minneapolis-at-the-walker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936836\/","title":{"rendered":"Design meets spirituality, and a shaken Minneapolis, at the Walker"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a bright white gallery at the Walker Art Center, curator Joseph Grima stands in front of a chair that appears to be charred to a crisp. Next to it is a grainy photo of the same chair lapped by bright orange flames, on the cover of the July 1974 issue of Casabella, a famed Italian design magazine. The image was as viral as one could be in the pre-internet age.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that all architecture students and design students have sort of burned into their memory because it was one of those iconic images,\u201d Grima said. The Brit is a renowned international design figure who has been commuting to the Walker from his home in Milan.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Caption: The 1974 \u201cLass\u00f9,\u201d a chair on a journey, by late Italian designer Alessandro Mendini sets the historical stage for the Walker Art Center Design Triennial \u201cBeyond Materialism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex V. Cipolle | MPR News<\/p>\n

The chair is the first object Grima wants to show me among the 100 or so pieces that create a bizarro world filled with off-center objects of domesticity and the built environment at the Walker’s inaugural design triennial, \u201cBeyond Materialism.\u201d<\/a> Grima and Asli Altay \u2013 the Walker\u2019s artistic director of design programming \u2013 brought in the work of 26 major designers from around the world, from Nigeria to South Korea, Taiwan to the Netherlands. <\/p>\n

The Walker also commissioned Spanish artist Lucas Mu\u00f1oz Mu\u00f1oz to make a piece about Minneapolis. More on that later; first, back to the chair.<\/p>\n

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. <\/p>\n

The medium is not the message<\/p>\n

The chair, or rather the journey of the chair \u2013 the chair and fire and aftermath as performance art \u2013 is called \u201cLass\u00f9,\u201d Italian for \u201cUp There,\u201d by Italian designer Alessandro Mendini. It\u2019s a conceptual exercise. The chair itself is a platonic ideal, not something anyone would ever sit on comfortably, and Mendini is sending that idea up in flames. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Asli Altay, artistic director of design programming at the Walker Art Center, and “Beyond Materialism” curator Joseph Grima.<\/p>\n

Courtesy Walker Art Center<\/p>\n

\u201cLass\u00f9 marked the beginning of a certain ritualistic idea of design,\u201d Grima said. As he explains, it created a before and after in the design world: Design should also serve conceptual and spiritual purposes, not just those of practicality, affordability and convenience prized in the consumer boom after World War II.<\/p>\n

This idea, that design could serve a higher or spiritual purpose, is at the heart of the entire exhibition. To drive this point home, \u201cLass\u00f9\u201d has been placed next to a wooden American Shaker chair made in 1820, the kind of sturdy spindled seat found at a kitchen table. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Shakers were one of the first movements to acknowledge that design could have a dimension that transcends the material,\u201d Grima said. \u201cFor the Shakers, making beautiful objects was a form of devotion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An 1820 Shaker chair lays a spiritual foundation for \u201cBeyond Materialism\u201d at the Walker Art Center on Oct. 21.<\/p>\n

Alex V. Cipolle | MPR News<\/p>\n

As Grima points out, beyond the Shaker chair, none of the design objects are practical or useful in a conventional sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really wanted to start the exhibition by showing that as an example of an object that speaks to a physical need and to kind of everyday use, but also to a secondary purpose that addresses the sort of the realm of the spirit,\u201d Grima said.<\/p>\n

Who is the designer now?<\/p>\n

Altay, who came to the Walker from Turkey in 2021, has been dreaming up the triennial since she arrived. She wants to track how design has changed and will change in response to technology, climate, trends and new habits, and reconnect the museum to its storied design history<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe triennial will be coming back to the same question every three years: What is design, and who is the designer now?\u201d Altay says.<\/p>\n

The answers that the exhibition presents vary wildly, but a common response is the fountain. For one, \u201cSystem of Atonement\u201d is a 6-foot-tall fountain made of stacked plastic jerrycans \u2013 a form originally designed for the German military in the 1930s \u2013 by Korean designer Jonghoo Jeong. As a designer, Jeong had long worked with synthetic materials that are harmful to the environment, using jerrycans to dump their liquid waste into the sewer system, Grima explained.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The Netherlands-based Korean designer Jonghoo Jeong processes his guilt over using materials harmful to the environment with the fountain \u201cSystem of Atonement\u201d at the Walker Art Center, on Oct. 21.<\/p>\n

Alex V. Cipolle | MPR News<\/p>\n

\u201cHe decided to create this fountain as a way of actually atoning for his sins as a designer and somehow acknowledging that the process of design, in his case, carried with it externalities and consequences that were not necessarily positive,\u201d Grima said. \u201cIt’s a reflection on the trade-offs of trying to do good things, but also being caught in a system of production that is almost inevitably harmful.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the water trickled through the thin plastic, Altay added, \u201cWhat I love about this is the fact that it speaks to how guilt works, so it\u2019s closed circuit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The object dreamscape continues with an iridescent alien-like seesaw by Greek design duo Astronauts, a spartan and glistening chrome tableware set by the design group Ananas Ananas, based in Los Angeles and Baja, Calif., and the \u201cMigration Columns\u201d of American architect Germane Barnes, which reinterpret the classic Greek form through the lens of the African diaspora. Here Barnes has broken the column free of its smooth Western molds (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and so on), replacing it with rippling, jagged and rough surfaces.<\/p>\n

“Beyond Materialism”<\/p>\n

Fullscreen SlideshowPrevious Slide<\/p>\n

1 of 2<\/p>\n

\"Beyond\u201cBeyond Materialism\u201d at the Walker Art Center includes the melty Rococo-like fountains of designer Stef Fusani (foreground) and the iridescent seesaw by Greece-based design duo Astronauts.<\/p>\n

Courtesy Walker Art Center<\/p>\n

2 of 2<\/p>\n

\"A\u201cMigration Column\u201d in poplar wood by Miami-based architect and designer Germane Barnes.<\/p>\n

Courtesy Walker Art Center<\/p>\n

Next Slide<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of the works \u2013 they’re very personal,\u201d Grima said. \u201cThey speak to the dilemmas of the designers themselves. So they’re almost a form of self-reflection and self-therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Minneapolis to the world<\/p>\n

In an intimate corner at the end of the exhibition’s chain of galleries is a work more personal for Minnesotans, too. Spanish designer and sound-system artist Lucas Mu\u00f1oz Mu\u00f1oz paid multiple visits to Minneapolis over the past year to create a commission for the Walker called \u201cALL EARS.\u201d<\/p>\n

Altay and Grima stand amid the interactive fleshy sonic environment that is \u201cALL EARS.\u201d Altay operates a soundboard, sending the sounds of birds, waterfalls and city streets through the installation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened with Lucas was Lucas was going to build us a broadcasting-speaker sort of work, but he’d seen what happened during the ICE invasion, so he really pivoted,\u201d Altay said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment of the surge, and he was very touched by the stories that he was hearing, people’s experiences in this very, very difficult moment,\u201d Grima added. \u201cAnd so he decided to create a piece dedicated to the idea of listening. He built a series of, you could say, big ears.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

For \u201cALL EARS,\u201d Spanish designer Lucas Mu\u00f1oz Mu\u00f1oz recorded the sounds of Minneapolis and the memories of its citizens in 2026.<\/p>\n

Alex V. Cipolle | MPR News<\/p>\n

On a video call from his Madrid apartment, Mu\u00f1oz remembered how, on a cold December day in 2025, he visited Cheapo Records, the iconic used music store on Eat Street in south Minneapolis. Weeks later, after Mu\u00f1oz had returned to Spain, federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti on the same street. A friend notified him that the shooting happened next door to Cheapo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s quite impressive as a foreigner,\u201d Mu\u00f1oz said, \u201cthat a month before a very, very history-making event, I was in the place that that happened.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cNow when I go to that place, it feels like there is a wound on the social tissue of the city,\u201d added Mu\u00f1oz, comparing it to the \u201cUpside down\u201d in the sci-fi show \u201cStranger Things.\u201d \u201cEverything looks the same, but it feels weird. It feels different. It feels that there is something open that is historical and it’s still finding its place in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minneapolis, Operation Metro Surge and the killings of Pretti and Renee Good were all over the news in Europe, Mu\u00f1oz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMinneapolis was in the mouth of everybody in all the newspapers because of the very, very contestatory society it has that stands for its rights and stands for its ethics,\u201d Mu\u00f1oz said. <\/p>\n

“ALL EARS”<\/p>\n

Fullscreen SlideshowPrevious Slide<\/p>\n

3 of 3<\/p>\n

\"handmadeThe Walker Art Center commissioned Spanish designer Lucas Mu\u00f1oz Mu\u00f1oz to create a sound portrait of Minneapolis. The artist recorded sounds with his handmade microphones around the city. <\/p>\n

Courtesy Walker Art Center<\/p>\n

1 of 3<\/p>\n

\"handmadeThe Walker Art Center commissioned Spanish designer Lucas Mu\u00f1oz Mu\u00f1oz to create a sound portrait of Minneapolis. The artist recorded sounds with his handmade microphones around the city. <\/p>\n

Courtesy Walker Art Center<\/p>\n

2 of 3<\/p>\n

\"AThe Walker Art Center commissioned Spanish designer Lucas Mu\u00f1oz Mu\u00f1oz to create a sound portrait of Minneapolis. The artist recorded sounds with his handmade microphones around the city, from Minnehaha Falls to Mercado Central.<\/p>\n

Courtesy Walker Art Center<\/p>\n

Next SlideBirds, whistles and \u2018La Migra, La Migra\u2019<\/p>\n

At the next meeting with the Walker, Mu\u00f1oz informed them that he was changing the design of his commission from speakers to microphones: \u201cThis is a moment for microphones. This is a moment to give voice to the people, give voice to the street. I think it\u2019s a moment of listening.\u201d<\/p>\n

On return visits in June and September, Mu\u00f1oz roamed the city with his massive fleshy latex microphones, capturing everything from the street sounds of Nicollet Avenue to the Heron Rookery, Minnehaha Falls to Karmel Mall, Mercado Central and the personal stories of Minneapolitans filled with memories of helicopters flying over south Minneapolis, \u201cwhistles and \u2018La Migra, La Migra.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, visitors can go to the Walker to see the \u201cears\u201d and listen to and mix the sounds and memories of Minneapolis in 2026. <\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond Materialism\u201d runs at the Walker through Feb. 14, 2027. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a bright white gallery at the Walker Art Center, curator Joseph Grima stands in front of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-936836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}