#Bettina Kiehnle

[anniversary-magazine]

A Collaboration Between Studio IMA and Anniversary Unites Distant Design Languages

This past February, Studio IMA and Anniversary teamed up during Mexico City’s Art Week for a showcase that reframes contrasting design disciplines in an inviting apartment setting. On view until Fall 2020, the exhibition is a clever take on the power of aesthetics and instinctive perception, putting the distinct Mexican and Japanese cultures in dialogue.

In organizing the show, Bettina Kiehnle of Studio IMA collaborated with Alex Lesage and Emanuelle Roque of Anniversary to dress the gallery’s rooms in a unique manner, displaying the chosen alongside existing pieces from various local and international artists, to create a somewhat mystifying atmosphere that blurs origins and reveals an intriguing homogenous entity.

The newly reimagined space discerningly shapes an encounter between the two rich cultures, juxtaposing their unique traits and highlighting their common threads. With thoughtful and contemplative installations in each room, the intuitive selection of works presents a refined expose of both design aesthetics that aims to enlighten and pique curiosities and perhaps present a new narrative in and of itself. 

Studio IMA sits inside a modernist apartment building in the Roma Norte neighbourhood of Mexico City. The renowned interior design studio, design gallery and boutique was a natural setting for a showcase that juxtaposes Mexican and Japanese art and design works; IMA, an acronym that stands for ‘in my apartment’, is also a Japanese word meaning ‘the present’. Founded and curated by Bettina Kiehnle, IMA is both home and studio, offering discerning art & design lovers an exciting contemporary pivot on the classic gallery.

There is a sense of voyeurism for visitors as they idly stroll between the rooms that make up the apartment. Its pared-down aesthetic, infused with stillness and subtle inconsistencies, delicately combines Bettina’s love for Mexican earth tones, Nordic sensibilities and Japanese plays on light and shadow.

Peppered with whimsical fragments from nature and interwoven with existing gallery works, the deft varied palette of works on display, celebrates the intercultural connections originating from parallel traditions all while embracing sharp differences and overlapping variations. Characteristic elements of Japanese artistic technique based on the appreciation of transient beauty, imperfection and sometimes decay smoothly blend with a Mexican aesthetic that celebrates impermanence, the rustic and the natural world. In the altered rooms, the salient differences quiet down, leading to a delightful mixup as to the origin of the works on display.

As well, the show with its diverse mix of contemporary works, design pieces and found objects, covers the divide between works considered design pieces and those that identify as visual art. The compelling mise-en-scène softens the time and again argued division between the artistic forms rendering their differences vague and in turn accentuates their common philosophies and traits.

Ultimately, building a bridge between Mexico and Japan in an intimate setting serves to highlight cultural sensibilities, celebrate cross-overs and various forms of artistic expression, and embrace new thinking.

STUDIO IMA Orizaba 42, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico RSVP for appointments at info@studioima.com.mx Website: studioima.com, Instagram: @_studioima_

Exhibiting artists/studios:

Alejandra Ibarra Studio, Ben & Aja Blanc, Disciplina Studio, Frama, Hiroshi Okuno, Benoît Viaene, Ileana Moro, Kazuo Kadonaga (Galería Mascota), La Metropolitana, Liza Lacroix, Mohamed Nahmou, Perla Valtierra, Taller Mono Rojo, Tezontle Studio, Tómas Días Cedeño.

Special thanks to Galería Mascota & Mauricio Guerrero of La Metropolitana for their contribution to this exhibition.

Curation & Art direction by Bettina Kiehnle and Alex Lesage Photography by Alex Lesage

Styling by Emmanuelle Roque