© 2009 Ron Arad and Associates

Rendering of installation view of "Ron Arad: No Discipline," Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2009. Foreground: Lolita chandelier (2004) and Even the Odd Balls? chairs (2008).

Photo by Larry Dunstan

Ron Arad

September 2009 Field Guide

Modernologies

Gustav Metzger

Yui Kugimiya

11th International Istanbul Biennial

The Otolith Group

Lee Ufan

YARD

Ron Arad 20th-Century Design Ron Arad Shows “No Discipline” at MoMA 20th-Century Design Name Dropping Conversation With James Zemaitis Into the Wood Table Talk

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Designer-architect-artist extraordinaire Ron Arad may be called an artist by designers, an architect by artists, and a designer by architects, but Arad doesn’t like to be defined as any of the above. Last year, the Centre Pompidou gave Arad free rein to declare this in a show aptly titled "No Discipline," offering the arguably irreverent modern art museum a platform for the irreverent designer’s oeuvre. The show drew record crowds and gave Arad followers an inside look into the mind of this famously indefinable designer. Now, MoMA has opened an Arad midcareer retrospective with the same title but very different in nature, showing that even the undisciplined créateur can be tempered. Marina Cashdan spoke with Arad about the two exhibitions, his design philosophy, and his continuing struggle not to be pigeonholed.

How is the MoMA exhibition different from the Pompidou exhibition?

The cities are different, the museums are very different, and it’s a big chunk of time [since the Pompidou show closed]. The Pompidou Center had a very expensive, disposable piece, which was a one-to-one piece of architecture. At MoMA, the main piece of the installation [Cage sans Frontières (Cage Without Borders)] was designed for the space but with a view of giving it afterlife. It’s not a disposable object. It is a piece in its own right, which belongs to someone who lent it to the museum. [At the Pompidou,] it was a building made of foam. There was no sense or space to travel it to New York.

But the rest of the pieces from the Pompidou came to MoMA?

There [is] a big overlap — a lot of the pieces play in both places, but some pieces in the MoMA show were made after the Pompidou show. [They were] made for MoMA.

What was your experience working with each institution? They have quite a different approach, yes?

The Pompidou Center is more relaxed about territories than MoMA. We had less curatorial intervention at the Pompidou — it was more like a canvas. There are different views about it. I know my view — I like the canvas — though I have respect for the other approach. MoMA has a different ethos and a different approach to what should be shown in the design department, what’s sculpture, what’s fine art, and what’s architecture. It’s stricter in New York.

That has been a constant battle for you, hasn’t it?

I don’t care ... I don’t need a passport to go from one thing to the other.

Do you call yourself a designer or an artist or ...?

I don’t call myself anything. I have no problem. I think that [some of my work is] only for an art gallery. Some of the work [fits] amazingly well in a shop. And the architecture fits very well in a city. And I am happy doing all of them. I have no problem doing an industrially produced chair that’s designed for commercial distribution. I have a lot of pleasure doing it. I don’t think this work is of any interest to the art gallery or the art market, but I also do things that I can sell in a shop. I have some pieces that really have a place in MoMA, but because it’s contaminated with function, the sculpture and painting people will not even look at it. And the design section, they only want to exhibit things that are mass-produced and commercially available. And what about most of the work that I do in the studio? There is no problem at the Timothy Taylor Gallery [in London], and there’s no problem in the Pompidou Center. But I think it’s changing everywhere, including the wonderful MoMA.

How do you feel New York fits within the whole design community?

I generally believe that in some respects, Europe is a lot more relaxed when it comes to territories in the creative world than America. But maybe I’ll change my views. It’s very funny to say that when there is an amazing, unbelievable amount of cutting-edge activity that comes from New York, so I don’t know yet.

With regard to your design approach, what are some of your likes and dislikes?

I dislike boredom, and I like excitement. I dislike fundamentalism, and I like pluralism. I like designing things that did not exist before I designed them. I like things that are generally new. I like to surprise myself. I like to be surprised by other people.