DESIGN:Anette Lenz,Part II

Born in Germany, Anette Lenz began her career in France working the design group Grapus, was later co-founder of the design collective Nous Travaillons Ensemble and has created her own atelier in Paris in 1993. Her work is concerned with the re-enchantement and the poetics of public space. Amongst other recent projects is the architectural light installation in le Havre, France.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Museum Angewandte Kunst Archive

The German graphic designer Anette Lenz, who lives in Paris, is one of the most influential designers of today. Out of a sense of distrust towards commercial advertising, she has developed new strategies for visual communication in the public space. In a manner sometimes anarchical but always passionate and experimental, she plays with typography, colour, photography and film to bring forth exceptional poster sequences, books and exhibition designs; she has also created the visual identities of several French cities, theatres and museums. In a world of communication determined by economic factors and still strongly dominated by men, she has always relied on her own distinctiveness, which has made her a pioneer of a new generation of women graphic designers. In “à propos”, her first large-scale solo exhibition in Germany, Anette Lenz contextualizes, ironizes and comments on her own attitude towards life. She transforms the Museum spaces into immersive graphic worlds that make visual communication a tangible experience: sensual, poetic and thought-provoking. The title à propos – which means “by the way” – does not merely allude to the fact that she has something to add, a comment of her own to make, but also lays claim to relevance, to a comment made at exactly the right point and time. It can be understood as an invitation to enter into complicity with her work and her approach to design. Rather than turning us into consumers, the impact of her work enables us to participate in graphic design’s inventiveness and power of expression, in a sophisticated game of ever-new interrelationships between information and imagery. The graphic work “I AM PART OF THE BIG PICTURE AND THE BIG PICTURE IS PART OF ME” by Anette Lenz serves as a fitting prelude to her concept of a design resonance that, in today’s times, could hardly be more topical. As vistors walk through the different exhibition spaces, they can immerse themselves in Anette Lenz’s multi-layered design process. She plays with superimposition, three-dimensionality and spatiality, drawing inspiration from a wide variety of materials and media. The exhibition will be gradually expanded with additional content over its duration until the end of the exhibition.

Info: Curators: Peter Zizka, Prof. Matthias Wagner K, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Schaumainkai 17, Frankfurt / Main, Duration: 2/7/20-3/1/20, Days & Hours: Tue, Thu-Sun 10:00-18, Wed 10:00-20:00, www.museumangewandtekunst.de