Exhibitions
Design Museum Dedel was opened on 1 July 2019 by Mrs. Hedy d’Ancona.
Now showing
August 3, 2025 through February 2026
The four musketiers. Cassandre, Carlu, Colin and Loupot.
April 16 - juni 30, 2025
Posters for Peace Exhibition, Synopsis
Angelika Sosnova
In the anti-war exhibition of the museum Dedel, you come across the artworks made at the beginning of the twentieth century that look like prophecies of upcoming disasters. And indeed end-of-the-world theories are part of our cultural background and can be found in any folklore and ancient traditions. The fear of an uncertain and unknown future drives the human mind to explain the unexplainable. As the human body goes through the cycle of life, the universe must dissolve and reemerge as well. The Mayan version of the world-end records a vast cosmic cycle that represents a world period of some thirty-four thousand years—twelve and a half million days—and these are recorded again and again. However, with the development of weapons of mass destruction mankind doesn’t need to wait for the end of the cosmic cycle anymore. During the twentieth century, the idea of the possible end of humankind was ever present in the public space all the way through the Cold War till 1991. Great deal of fear, tension, and anger were reflected in art pieces of the era. Our museum’s anti-war poster exhibition combines works of many politically involved artists, designers, and illustrators. They strived to appeal to the kind human hearts, to the best human qualities in an attempt to stop bloodshed from happening.
permanent exibition
Art nouveau, a source of inspiration
In the library is a permanent exhibition of Art Nouveau posters.
Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and flowers. Other characteristics of Art Nouveau were a sense of dynamism and movement, often given by asymmetry or whiplash lines, and the use of modern materials, particularly iron, glass, ceramics and later concrete, to create unusual forms and larger open spaces. It was popular between 1890 and 1910 during the Belle Époque period, and was a reaction against the academicism, eclecticism and historicism of 19th century architecture and decorative art.
One major objective of Art Nouveau was to break down the traditional distinction between fine arts (especially painting and sculpture) and applied arts. It was most widely used in interior design, graphic arts, furniture, glass art, textiles, ceramics, jewellery and metal work. The style responded to leading 19-century theoreticians, such as French architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879) and British art critic John Ruskin (1819–1900). In Britain, it was influenced by William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. German architects and designers sought a spiritually uplifting Gesamtkunstwerk ('total work of art') that would unify the architecture, furnishings, and art in the interior in a common style, to uplift and inspire the residents.
