01 The Beginning of a Dream, Polymer
The Beginning of a Dream, Polymer, marks the beginning of a journey into the fantastic world of plastic, introducing the unique characteristics and potential of this material. An installation work made from achromatic, translucent plastic begins at the entrance to the exhibition, demonstrating its pure qualities and form and signaling towards the start of the infinite change that is to come.
The Invisible Collection by Tokujin Yoshioka (2010)
03 Molding New Living
Molding New Living explores the time of prosperity for plastic, as design began reflecting upon the practicality and rationality-oriented atmosphere of the 1960s and 1970s, as the optimism for the future, the dawn of the Space Age, and the outdoor lifestyle trends.
Featuring both interior and exterior design products, as well as light fixtures, this section examines plastic’s full-scale introduction to color, along with its development to modular furniture that allowed its users to flexibly change the products in accordance with their own aims, tastes, and desired functions. On display are a variety of bold, uniquely designed products that could only have been produced by plastic, along with outdoor items that take advantage of plastic's outstanding waterproof qualities and lightness, children's furniture collections, and plastic light fixtures that lead the way from the end of the first floor of the exhibition up until the stairs.
Hook 4702 (1972-) by Olaf von Bohr
Umbrella stand 7610 (1965) by Gino Colombini
Suspension lamp KD 5 and KD 6 (1959-1981)
by Achille Castiglioni, Pier Giacomo Castiglioni
05 When Designers Dream
When Designers Dream divides the works of master designers and those that are up-and-coming into three themes, as they have expressed their own unique artistic sensibilities and imaginations over the generations through plastic.
The first theme celebrates of the centenary of legendary Italian designer Ettore Sottsass, introducing both Sottsass's pattern-based works and those of the younger designers inspired by him. The second theme uses large installation works for the three towering figures of design - Philippe Starck, Antonio Citterio, and Piero Lissoni - whom applied their own artistic sensibilities to the transparency, ease of production and assembly, and lightness of plastic. The final theme goes beyond form and explores the development of plastic as a surface material, offering a close-up experience of a different aspect of the material noticed by artists ranging from design giant Mario Bellini to young star designers such as Patricia Urquiola and Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec.
Piuma chair (2016-) by Piero Lissoni
Papyrus Chair (2008-) by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec
06 Constantly Evolving
Constantly Evolving hints at the future journey for plastic in the same way as that of the exhibition's opening section, Polymer, the Beginning of a Dream. As the final section of PLASTIC FANTASTIC, this space takes the form of another symbolic installation work and film produced by design studio SHOWMAKERS to inspire new developments for the future of plastic, as it continues to defy our imaginations thanks to its boundless potential.