Central Image: Synthetic Cultures, 2050+ | twimg.com

Occasioned by the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, where we encountered the Synthetic Cultures project by 2050+, which dealt with synthetic meat and everything that comes with it throughout history and within our societies, we decided to take a closer look at this team of designers that pops up in our tabs more and more frequently.

2050+ remind me of Childish Gambino. Just as he is a rapper, comedian, actor, director and producer -and all the other things I forgot to mention- so too 2050+, based in Milan, create designs, interior spaces and installations, do research, make art and create advertisements with Bulgari, showing little regard for the boundaries between different fields and specialisations. Perhaps there aren’t a lot of job opportunities for designers at the present historical moment, perhaps designers are the closest thing to the humanistic ideal of the homo Universalis and creative professions are after it more actively, or again due to the hype of interdisciplinarity we perhaps think that absolute categorisation and specialisation in our every moment of thinking might not have been a very good idea. Then again, maybe we see a lot of things on Instagram and want to do just as much.

The Pillars, National Museum, Oslo | adsttc.com

The Pillars, National Museum, Oslo | 2050.plus

Within this general realm 2050+ move and express accordingly. In the new National Museum of Norway in Oslo, they constructed a dynamic framework for the content of the exhibitions. The surfaces that make up the outer surface of the exhibition space are on rails and can be modified, providing the much desired condition of flexibility to the curators of the exhibitions since the movement of these panels can alter the configuration of the space every day. And to provide extra flexibility and dynamics to the spatial context that introduces the works to the visitors, 2050+ have placed rails on the ceiling to move fabric partitions - curtains in layman’s terms -, creating extra options for the curators to display the exhibits in a -potentially- constantly novel space so that we are never bored.

Penumbra | 2050.plus

The idea of the velocity of change, the idea of continuous rapid renewal and the idea of time that never stops was also highlighted in the installation they created for the literal runway for Sunnei's Fall Winter 2022 collection. There, the team from Milan built a metal structure, describing it like a movie set, where all the infrastructure of the event had been suspended; lights, seats for the spectators, butterflies and balloons reminiscent of “Instant City” by Italian Archigramm. In yet another manifestation of the concept, a gesture especially habitual these days in the world of design, the models presenting the clothes ran the runway instead of walking it. By the time all the models had reached the finish line the event was over, the props were packed and preparations were already beginning for the next spectacle.

Penumbra | stirworld.com

I encountered my favourite work by 2050+ in Venice, at Complesso dell’Ospedaletto, called Penumbra. For the Biennale Arte 2022, an installation is created there with black repetitive partitions that traverse the space between various architectural works of the past and present, and short films are projected on them, which directly relate to their surroundings. In this penumbra, one traverses through space and time and confronts flashes, moments and fragments of images as an analog translation of the very form of cinematography. A very beautiful scenographic space, which constructs a cinema in four dimensions and unites multiple instances into a single experience, creates an atmospheric experience with minimal means that can be easily disassembled and re-assembled.

Penumbra | stirworld.com

The work of 2050+ can hardly be challenged and if one reads their texts about their work one can easily understand their choices. This defensive play of direct correlations of data creates a condition where there are no easily discernible weaknesses in their constructions and also certitudes about their skills and abilities. It is clear that they handle their tools adequately and through simple gestures, employing minimal means, create environments that one can understand and get excited about. The creative catenaccio, where everything falls ideally in place and every step follows the previous one with certainty, has many virtues and offers safety but lacks emotional flareup and a range of possibilities. Of course, the great Sir Alex Ferguson had said that "attack wins you games and defence titles". Now, for which title we are all competing, I personally do not know.