OPPOSITES UNITED ARTWORK EXHIBITION

Reconciling opposites is among the simplest thoughts you can have. An idea that can be traced even in the most hidden past and even in the most recent philosophy, at the heart of modernity. But it is not a question of finding the positive in the negative or vice versa, but rather of tracing that zero degree, that balance, in which what is opposite or in contradiction coexists in a state of quiet, of mixing, from which it is possible to distill thoughts, names and unexpected experiences, otherwise unimaginable.

This is how we could summarize "Opposites United": Kia's design philosophy, which brings the Opposites United Artwork Exhibition during the Salone Del Mobile to the Museo della Permanente in Milan. These are five large installations that want to enclose and tell the principles of design to which Kia turns, following the five pillars in which the scope of the brand's design and vision is recognized: Bold for Nature, Joy for Reason, Tension for Serenity, Technology for Life and Power to Progress. Each of these areas contains a horizon of meaning that has to do with a precise posture, aimed at rethinking the relationship between technology and humanity in terms of amazement and humanization, to the always human relationship between materials, design and ecosystem, up to the status of logic with respect to the instinctual matter of feelings. It is not for nothing that there will be no vehicle on display in the exhibition, proving that what is meant does not concern the product itself, but rather concerns the thought and suggestions that move the reasons underlying the design. In fact, we are talking about visual and sound installations, contiguous spaces designed to produce experiences through video and sound environments and digital sculptures. In short, with Opposites United we talk about a series of images that want to reiterate the urgency of pausing and rethinking the categories of progress that move mobility and its different experiences.

For this reason, Zero, on the occasion of Opposites United Special Exhibition, organizes five days dedicated to the five pillars of Kia: a talk a day and a concert, each appointed to find the tools to orient themselves in this modernity where new perspective visions are needed, where it is necessary to exercise the gaze to find in that game of full and empty an order of meaning,  to build a landscape in which to horizontally. It is the zero degree, a new space that needs new compasses. The five meetings and five Opposites United themed concerts will compare leading cultural and artistic figures on the Italian and international scene, including Emanuele Coccia (philosopher), Alice Rawsthorne (design theorist and columnist for the New York Times), Andrea Lissoni (curator of the Haus der Kunst in Munich, formerly of the Tate Modern and HangarBicocca),  Marco Sammicheli (curator of design and fashion of the Triennale di Milano), Bethan Laura Wood (designer) and Femi Adeyemi (director of NTSradio), as well as artists such as Hudson Mohawke, Afrodeutsche, Talpah and Alewya among others.

Everyone will be invited to converse and play around the emergencies of contemporaneity and the most incisive experiences: how to rethink the all-modern idea of progress and therefore of the future, how ubiquitous and global cultural networks are built, up to that fundamental exercise of imagination that is necessary to relearn to orient oneself.

（From Milan Design Week 2023 fuorisalone.it）