Biography
Free-lance curator and Professor in history and theory in design at HEAD – Genève (HES-SO), Alexandra Midal combines a curating and research activity in design and visual culture. Former Director of the Regional Founds of Contemporary Art of Haute-Normandie (FRAC), and former assistant of Dan Graham for public commissions, she has curated numerous shows in international museums: MAMC (Saint-Etienne); Musée d’art Moderne (Luxembourg), Musée d’art moderne (Paris), Cité du design (Saint-Etienne), WOLFSONIAN Museum (Miami), ADAM (Luxembourg); Lieu du design (Paris); Artist’s Space (New York); etc. As the Director of the Design Project Room (2011-2014), Alexandra Midal has curated a series of shows: Carlo Mollino; Marguerite Humeau; Auger-Loizeau; El Ultimo Gritto; Didier Faustino; Superstudio, etc. She has published several books: Antidesign; Design, l’Anthologie; Atelier van Lieshout, l’économie libidinale; Introduction à l’histoire du design, … and catalogues : Eames & Hollywood; Matali Crasset, Politique-Fiction… as well as essays in international journals and museum catalogues (MoMA, MOCA, MNAM, Mudam, ARC, MAMCO, etc.). She is also the author of a series of films of visual theory such as Hocus Pocus: Twilight in My Mind, Politique-Fiction, Villa Frankenstein ; and Domestic Psycho. The films are touring in museums worldwide.
Contents
12.05.2022
Design of the Mind
Gadgets, Cinéma, Manipulations mentales et Espionnage
Cold War spy films bear witness to a polarity between overt technophilia and a critique of technology’s hold on the human mind. In this text, which prefigures an exhibition that Alexandra Midal…
07.04.2022
Talking Heads – matali crasset
A time for restitution
matali crasset is an admired designer, known for her public commissions and numerous editions with brands. In this Talking Heads event hosted by Alexandra Midal, crasset addresses the more subterranean and essential…
20.01.2022
Talking Heads – La voix dans tous ses états
With Véronique Auguereau, Philippe Peythieu, Olivier Lebrun, Marge & Homer Simpson
Actress Véronique Augereau and actor Philippe Peythieu are the voices behind the French Marge and Homer Simpson. For this Talking Head, Augereau and Peythieu sit down with graphic designer Olivier Lebrun, author…
30.09.2021
Film montage and its effects
Montage is one of the privileged instruments of cinema for directing the attention and emotions of the spectators. Alfred Hitchcock, who defined himself as a director of spectators before being a director…
04.07.2019
Head to head II – Alexandra Midal
In this portrait, which takes the form of an interview, Julie Enckell Julliard seeks to grasp the originality and radicality of Alexandra Midal’s thinking, which enlarges the field of design theory by…
22.11.2018
Alexandra Midal – Conclusion
As soon as the colloquium is over, Alexandra Midal undertakes the flashback exercise. Her synthetic and personal re-reading unravels the spool of time and narratives, proceeding in between myth, animism and apocalypse but also…