Exhibitions
Art Deco: the values of a society in full transformation at the DHub
Hedonism, exoticism, optimism and democratization mark the common thread of an exhibition that reveals how the design of the 1920s reflected the aspirations of an urban and modern society.
Until January 25, the Disseny Hub Barcelona (DHub) is hosting the temporary exhibition Art (D)éco 1925 | 2025. Design, mirror of the Decorative Arts , which promises to mark these last months of 2025. Curated jointly by the FAD and Pedro Azara, the exhibition establishes a dialogue between two very different material cultures: on the one hand, the 1920s, with the emergence of art deco, and on the other, the era of the industrialization of consumer goods, which profoundly transformed everyday objects and the way we perceive them.
One hundred years after the International Exhibition of Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, the world's cultural capital at that time, the Foment de les Arts i del Disseny commemorates that historical milestone with a selection of two hundred objects and projects that represent contemporary material culture: products that we use and incorporate into our daily lives and that reveal the way we interpret and inhabit the world.
Photography by Xavier Padrós.
The exhibition is structured in three blocks. The first introduces the FAD's participation in the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, with photographs and representative pieces of Catalan artists selected by the Barcelona-based organization. The visitor then enters a large room where objects from two worlds are confronted: that of 1925 and that of 2025. In the center, symbolizing a mirror, a sign indicates which half corresponds to the elements of the 1920s and which to the contemporary. The tables are organized symmetrically with respect to this division, which allows the public to always have in front of them what is to come and behind them what has brought us here.
Photography by Xavier Padrós.
The society of 1925 experienced a period marked by optimism, transformation and the desire to modernize. The exhibition is based on four fundamental principles—hedonism, exoticism, optimism and democratization—that serve as a common thread to understand how design and the decorative arts reflected the values and aspirations of that time. Hedonism is manifested in the attention to pleasure, beauty and quality of life; exoticism, in the fascination with distant cultures and new forms that inspired artists and designers; optimism, in the belief in technological and social progress; and democratization, in the desire to make art and good design accessible to a wider audience. Through these axes, the exhibition allows us to understand how society in the late 1920s aspired to be urban, industrialized and open to modernity, transforming the way everyday objects were produced, consumed and inhabited.
