Continuing on from the rich harvest of 2011 Taiwan Year of Design, Taipei Fine Arts Museum has joined forces this year with le Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain Nord-Pas de Calais to present the exhibition DESTRØY DESIGN – Modern Living. Judging from the title, the subject of the exhibition appears to be design, but in fact it closely follows the trajectory of 20th-century Western modern art, from such avant-garde explorations as the readymades of Marcel Duchamp, pop art and Arte Povera to the cross-disciplinary thought of the new century. Exploring the differences in the way design and art define “objects” by considering the areas at which avant-garde design and contemporary artworks converge, it contemplates the relationships among art, design, objects and everyday life.

Curated by Hilde Teerlinck, director of FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, this exhibition presents 66 works from FRAC by 54 artists, designers, architects and design teams from around the world. DESTRØY DESIGN has been exhibited in Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. With its arrival in Taiwan, the subtitle “Modern Living” was added to reflect a curatorial concept applied by the curator specially for its Taiwan showing. The dates of the exhibited works span half a century, from the 1960s to the present day. Most of the participating artists have employed humorous methods – criticizing, wrecking, recreating or questioning well-known designs. Other works seem to erase the dividing line between art and design, or even boldly overturn our perceptions of designed objects.

DESTRØY DESIGN conveys the values of destruction and revolt, reconsidering the meaning of the existing system. The curator uses works by many benchmark designers and artists to discuss numerous conceptual issues, dividing the works into ten chapters. Because the exhibited “objects” inherently involve cross-disciplinary applications of contemporary art, popular culture, fashion design and interior design, and are related to the definition of “home,” TFAM’s exhibition space design has transformed its long galleries into apartment-like rooms reflecting the core curatorial concept – “Modern Living” – with the aim of exploring the unique character of each artwork and the functionality of the designed objects, and thus providing the Taiwanese public with an opportunity to observe and ponder contemporary society, the city and domestic life.