Last week – on view until 16 April

'Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes & des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne', Meessen De Clercq, Brussels, Belgium.

With Kasper Akhøj (1976, Copenhagen, DK. Lives in New York, USA); Martí Anson (1967, Mataró, ES. Lives in Mataró, ES); Maria Loboda (1979, Krakow, PL. Lives in London, UK); Charlotte Moth (1975, Carshalton, UK. Lives in Paris, FR); Sarah Ortmeyer (1980, Frankfurt, DE. Lives in Frankfurt, DE).

The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts & Arts and Technology in Modern Life presents the work of five contemporary visual artists which engage with specific instances of modernity as represented through industrial or domestic design (and alongside a synthesized ‘period’ exhibition title taken from conjoining the names of the Paris Worlds’ Fairs from 1925 and 1937). A world-famous tower, a street, a range of furniture, and a modular display system, for example, have been metaphorically taken apart before being reconstituted, sometimes literally, through artistic practices and personal affiliations which incorporate historical research, travel, tribute and scenography, for example. (+ info...)

Kasper Akhøj presents a slideshow which comprises the latest chapter in his ongoing research into the modular display system Abstracta, originally designed by the Danish architect and designer Poul Cadovious in the 1960s for a world’s fair. In Akhøj’s travelogue, what appears to be a purely practical system, conceived with reproducibility, easy assembly and storage finds itself forming the shapes of an intriguing and elegantly obsessive narrative.

Kasper Akhøj (1976, Copenhaguen, Denmark. Lives in New York, US) studied at Goldsmiths College, University of London (2000), the Städelschule - Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt am Main (2006) and graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen (2006). He recently completed the Whitney Independent Study Program, New York in 2009. Recent solo exhibitions include: Kasper Akhoj: After the Fair, Wiels Center for Contemporary Art, Brussels; Ellen de Bruijne PROJECTS/Dolores, Amsterdam; Welcome (TO THE TEKNIVAL), Künstlerhaus Stuttgart co-produced with Overgaden Institute for Contemporary Art in Copenhagen (all 2010). Akhøj’s work has also been shown at the International Studio & Curatorial Program, New York, 2009; Art in General, New York, 2009; 28th São Paulo Biennial, 2008 and Den Frie - Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, 2006.

During the early 1960s Joaquim Anson, the father of Mataró-based artist Martí Anson, developed a range of furniture inspired by modern designs with the aim of offering his community an affordable and fashionable custom-made range. Forty years on, Martí Anson has undertaken extensive research to recuperate this social service project of his father and has begun to produce furniture again under the company name JOAQUIMANDSON. This will be the rediscovered designs’ first public exhibition; a range of new prototypes will be will be available for purchase alongside 1960s lamp and posters.

Martí Anson (1967 Mataró, Spain. Lives in Mataró, Spain). Recent solo shows include: Mataró Chauffeur Service, No Soul for Sale, Tate Modern (2010); The price of colours, Galeria Toni Tàpies, Barcelona (2009), Martí and the flour factory, Can Palauet, Mataró (2009), Fitzcarraldo. 55 days working in the construction of a Stella 34 yacht, Centre d'Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona (2004), and group shows include Fetiches Críticos. Residuos de la economía general, Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo, Móstoles (2010); Rendez-Vous 09, 10th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon (2009); Lucky Number Seven, SITE Santa Fe, 7th International Biennial, Santa Fe, New Mexico (2008), Paperback, MARCO, Vigo (2007).

Maria Loboda presents new works which incorporate printed fabrics inspired by the designs of Sonia Delaunay, Lotte Frömmel-Fochler, Mitzi Friedmann-Otten, and others – or to be more precise, triggered by written descriptions of their geometric textiles. Loboda consulted published texts which try to describe and communicate the energy of these Wiener Werkstätte and Art Deco patterns in words and then attempted to recreate the designs from what these phrases suggested to her, alongside her memory of such patterns.

Maria Loboda (1979 Krakow, Poland. Lives in London, UK). Loboda studied at the Städelschule - Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt am Main (2008) and was a visiting artist and scholar at the New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development (2008). Solo shows include In the autumn the electricity with draws into the Earth Again and rests, Krome Gallery, Berlin (2010); Conversational Style, galerie Schleicher+Lange, Paris (2009); and group shows include: The Long Dark, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (2010); The object of Attack, Part 1, David Roberts Foundation, London (2009); Heaven, 2nd Athens Biennale, Athens (2009); Great Transformation. Art and tactical magic, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt am Main (travelling to MARCO, Vigo) (2008).

Charlotte Moth presents a film comprised of a sequence of black-and-white photographs and nine photographic prints under the titles The Absent Forms and The Protagonists (2010), respectively. Reflective, translucent and opaque panels, as well as objects including balls and a plant, become protagonists in a series of illuminated crepuscular and nocturnal scenes which take place on a tree lined cul-de-sac. The remarkable modernist buildings of the Paris street – designed as a totality by the little-known french architect Robert Mallet-Stevens and constructed in 1926–27 – become like a stage set for the dramatisation of the mechanics of the photographic image, while the soundtrack comprises a recording of an improvised drumming session performed in response to the work by the artist Sean Dower.

Charlotte Moth (1978 Carshalton, UK. Lives in Paris, France) studied at the Kent Institute of Art and Design in Canterbury (2000) and the Slade School of Art (2002) and held a research post at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (2005-6). Solo exhibitions in 2011 include Musée départemental d'art contemporain de Rochechouart, France; The Absent Forms, Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg, Germany (2010); Comma 18, Bloomberg SPACE London, UK (2010); remade, Gallery Marcelle Alix, Paris, France (2010); Behind Every Surface There is a Mystery..., project space, Kunstverein Dusseldorf, Germany (2009); Potential Narratives, Process Room, Irish Museum of Modern Art (2008). Group exhibitions include Associations, Arcade, London, UK (2010); After Architects, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2010); It's not for reading, It's for making, FormContent, London, UK (2009); Carte Blanche à Charlotte Moth, Galerie Lucile Corty, Paris, France (2008).

Sarah Ortmeyer pays homage to the universal symbol and the iconographic myth that is the Eiffel Tower and the structure’s often-forgotten original engineer, the Maurice Koechlin. VITRINE MAURICE (2011) consists of a series of objects and furnishings – all taken from an undisclosed room – which have been laid out in similar fashion to the 'Collection Yves Saint Laurent et Pierre Bergé' polemic auction. The items comprise a range of tacit motifs and abstract invocations of the Eiffel Tower’s singularly monumental shape and history.

Sarah Ortmeyer (1980 in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. Lives in Frankfurt/Main, Germany) studied at the Städelschule–Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt/Main (2008). Solo shows include Navy Royal, Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen (2010); Internationalismus, Kunstverein, Heilbronn (2010); Maurice, Hotel Marienbad/Kunst-Werke, Berlin (2009); Sabotage, Figge von Rosen Galerie, Cologne (2009) and group shows include Christmas in July, Yvon Lambert, New York (2010); One leading away from another, 303 Gallery, New York (2010); One's history is another's misery, Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam (2009) and Political / Minimal, Kunst-Werke, Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2008).