Exhibition view “Pure Gold” of upcycled furniture.
"Pure Gold", exhibition view, Thailand Creative & Design Center (TCDC), Bangkok, 2019, photo: Allie Suwanrumpha, © ifa

Pure Gold. Upcycled! Upgraded! – Montevideo

20 Feb 2025  -  18 May 2025
Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes "Juan Manuel Blanes"
Av. Millán 4015
11700 Montevideo

This international exhibition project presents 76 objects by a new global generation of designers who think ecologically and act ethically and sustainably. Their solution approaches address a grave, global problem of the present-day: waste and its processing. Pictures of the oceans choked with garbage or gigantic rubbish tips in remote regions of our planet are ubiquitous. In spite of the disastrous consequences for the global ecosystem, how waste is treated is only changing very slowly.
Upcycling – the transforming of by-products, waste materials, useless, or unwanted products into new materials or products of high quality – enhances awareness of alternative production methods and contemporary developments in design in Europe and elsewhere. The design objects utilize primary materials that are ostensibly inferior, combine very different objects in an unconventional way, or process unwanted by-products creatively.

The touring exhibition is complemented by the digital platform pure-gold.org where the exhibition can network with the local design scenes at the locations where the exhibition is shown. Local designers, artists, and students can engage under supervision in hands-on workshops with regionally developed upcycling methods. The results will be integrated in the exhibition on site and will be available as "upcycable videos" online as well as on show in the exhibition.

In cooperation with the Goethe Institut Uruguay and the Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes “Juan Manuel Blanes”.

Exhibitions worldwide

With over 20 touring exhibitions currently travelling across the globe and with its diverse event programmes on contemporary art, the ifa links the German art scene with internationally active cultural creators and forms cooperations and networks. The projects, many of which were developed in co-creation with local partners, cover the various disciplines of modern and contemporary fine arts – from current themes in architecture, photography and design to Bauhaus and monographic exhibitions such as Rosemarie Trockel or Marcel Odenbach. These projects generate local meeting platforms and allow international perspectives on topics of global relevance. The ifa also provides loan exhibits to interested museums. 

Find out more

Download:

Overview exhibitions worldwide (PDF)

Dr Clea Laade

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D-70173 Stuttgart

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