In 1966, Robert Venturi answered fifty years of "less is more" with four words: less is a bore.
That sentence cracked a door. Through it walked Studio Alchimia, Memphis, and a generation of designers who believed doubt could be joyful, ornament could be serious, and a laminate bookshelf could carry as much conviction as a cathedral. Postmodernism is not a style. It is an attitude — the permission to make things that feel alive.
Exhibition I lives inside that permission. Sottsass took the cheapest surfaces available and made them into cultural statements. We took molecules and tried to do the same thing.
Nine works from the canon of postmodern design, drawn as catalogue plates. Step closer — every one has a wall label.
Ways to keep living inside the story.
Every object here is selected by MAISEUM — from our canon and from partners and friends of the house, sorted by sense: how you will taste, see, touch, and hear Exhibition I at home.
Each piece supports the maker and is inspired by the ethos of the exhibition. Nothing is here by accident — it was included because we believe it connects, and expands the world somehow.
An evening in the world. Set the table, light the wick, press play.
Begin with fire. The lighter, the candle — the first signal that the evening has started.
The lighterThe Listening Room soundtrack, loud enough to argue with. Arriving with the playlist.
A recipe from our friends at Valentiful × Bento Picnic, with wine and sake pairings to match.
Bento PicnicOur friends at Valentiful and Bento Picnic are scripting the first evenings of the exhibition — recipes for the table, with wine and sake pairings and selections matched to the rooms. The first menu arrives with Exhibition I.
Meet Bento PicnicThe first recipe card lands here: a starter, a ritual, a pour. Wine & sake selection by Valentiful. If you set a beautiful table, we want to meet you.
Propose a table
The Carlton was not a bookshelf. It was a manifesto in laminate. We wrote about what it taught us — and what we did with the lesson.
Read the essay
The loudest room of postmodernism, and the first room of our museum. Postmodern, bold, unapologetically joyful.
Enter the roomYou are not the audience. You are part of the canon.
