This catalogue documents a collective exhibition program inspired by the writings of Charles Fourier. “L’Écart absolu” is a dialogue between architecture, artistic heritage and contemporary works, in which artists come together, interact and experiment on the edge of design, visual arts, decorative arts and applied arts.

With Karina Bisch, Nicolas Chardon, Marianne Maric, Dominique Mathieu, Syndicat, We Are The Painters, Atelier Van Lieshout, Aline Bouvy & John Gillis, Stanley Brouwn, Stéphane Calais, Jacques Charlier, Meschac Gaba, Marie Goussé, Teresa Margolles, Superflex, Barthélémy Toguo, Danh Vo, Maarten Van Severen

Our scene is set in the Museum Fodor in Amsterdam on November 9^th, 1972. We are told that it was “smoky, noisy and crowded”, and that the gathered audience made its presence felt through “frequent shouting”. The center of this fevered arena hosted the encounter between two Graphic Designers, two graphistes, two typographers, Wim Crouwel and Jan Van Toorn, in a country where their voices carry, where their thinking is important. A meeting, a conversation, or rather a confrontation, a controversy, it has been described as a debate, one that characterizes the way in which our discipline was represented in the 1980s and that continues to echo today.