Side Gallery
Side Gallery
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DESIGN MIAMI PARIS
21ST-26TH OCTOBER 2025
L'HÔTEL DE MAISONS
PARIS, FRANCE
Side Gallery is proud to present a research-driven exhibition dedicated to the rediscovery of Japanese modern design from the mid-twentieth century, with a special focus on the pioneering work of Tendo Mokko and the generation of designers who defined Japan’s modernist identity. Featuring key figures such as Isamu Kenmochi, Junzo Sakakura, Riki Watanabe, Saburo Inui, and Ubunji Kidokoro, the presentation revisits a decisive moment when Japan transitioned from a craft-based culture to an industrial design consciousness—bridging the language of modernism with the depth of its material and spiritual traditions. Throughout the 1950s to 1970s, Japan’s designers sought to articulate a new visual and social language that reflected a rapidly changing postwar nation. Within this context, Tendo Mokko emerged as one of the most influential manufacturers, collaborating with leading architects and designers to experiment with molded plywood and bentwood techniques. Their work captured the optimism of modern life while preserving the quiet discipline and restraint rooted in Japanese aesthetics.
The proposal examines how this generation of designers redefined modernity through a distinctly Japanese lens—one that privileged tactility over spectacle, structure over ornament, and the poetic balance between nature and technology. By reintroducing these works in the contemporary context of Design Miami Paris, Side Gallery invites a renewed appreciation for a design ethos that remains profoundly relevant today: one that understands simplicity as complexity distilled, and functionality as cultural expression. In dialogue with these historical icons, the presentation also includes works by contemporary Asian designers who reinterpret ancestral materials and processes within new aesthetic and ecological frameworks. Together, these historical and contemporary pieces trace a continuous lineage of Asian craftsmanship, revealing how design can act as a vessel for cultural memory while proposing new ways of inhabiting and understanding the material world.
