Friedman Benda is pleased to present An Accelerated Culture, curated by Libby Sellers and Brent Dzekciorius. The exhibition, which brings together a selection of the most progressive contemporary designers from the so-called ‘Generation X’, is an investigation into any shared ideologies and beliefs that emerge from such a disparate cohort. As Sellers states, “while any characterization of a generation will be filled with disclaimers, these practitioners went on to challenge the status quo by questioning everything, the design industry included, in order to redefine what a design practice could encompass and the territories where design can tread.” Using the generational grouping as a way into the varied views and expressions, An Accelerated Culture, highlights how the major cultural, economic and societal shifts that occurred during the decades before and after the turn of the millennium influenced and informed design practice today.

The title is a reference to Douglas Coupland’s 1991 novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, which sought to identify the collective zeitgeist of the post Baby Boomer generation. Though in a complete departure from the ennui demonstrated by Coupland’s twenty-somethings or the apathetic, slacker stereotypes espoused by film director Richard Linklater, the designers in An Accelerated Culture are defined by their engagement, openness, curiosity, and active expression. Through key examples and representations from more than twenty designers and design studios from eight (predominantly European) countries, the exhibition demonstrates the full breadth of this generation with an in-depth survey of design rarely seen outside of a museum context.

“While this generation was encouraged to explore autonomy, they were not necessarily free. Presented with a cacophony of choice, caught between their analogue youth and an increasingly digitalized future, facing the omnipotence of globalisation and a guarded industry suffering from a surplus of products, designers and companies, the options could have been stultifying. Rather than succumb, they developed entrepreneurial, independent and multidimensional methods to forge their own paths,” Sellers states.

An Accelerated Culture includes seminal works from practices established at the turn of the millennium, such as: Michael Anastassiades, Aldo Bakker, Maarten Baas, Tord Boontje, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Nacho Carbonell, Paul Cocksedge, Matali Crasset, Martino Gamper, Konstantin Grcic, Thomas Heatherwick, Joris Laarman, Max Lamb, Julia Lohmann, nendo, Raw Edges, Jerszy Seymour, Bertjan Pot, Studio Wieki Somers, and Studio Job.