The archive · Design & Visual · Product decision · 2020-2023
'Durian Durian' triennale catalogue is designed as the fruit - thorny to the touch
For a durian-themed triennial, the exhibition album became a durian itself: an abstract fruit form with a thorny touch and an ambition of taste.
Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
What it had to solve
Durian Durian is a durian-themed triennale that runs for three years as a mobile exhibition, consisting of a dozen unit exhibitions of different content and showcasing contemporary art that reflects regional issues in Southeast Asia. The Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts is named as client. The album had to contain all the texts and works of the unit exhibitions - and the designers wanted it to have a volume like a durian.
How it works
Durian Durian is a durian-themed triennale that runs for three years as a mobile exhibition, consisting of a dozen unit exhibitions of different content and showcasing contemporary art that reflects regional issues in Southeast Asia. The Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts is named as its client.
The exhibition's album gathers all the texts and works of those unit exhibitions. The designers' ambition went beyond documentation: they wanted the book itself to have a volume like a durian.
So the catalogue was built as an object to be sensed. Its look is an abstract state of durian, its surface expresses the touch of the fruit through thorns, and the designers even hoped for the taste of durian - sight, touch and taste working together with the printed content.
Instead of merely illustrating durians, the book makes the fruit the format of the catalogue. D&AD kept the work in its awards archive.
Why it lands
- A three-year mobile exhibition with a dozen unit shows needed one object that could stand for the whole project, and a durian-shaped volume does that more vividly than a flat catalogue.
- Giving the book real thorns turns the physical act of holding it into part of the durian experience, so the theme is felt before it is read.
- Aiming at sight, touch and taste sets a design ambition that makes the printed page feel like an insufficient carrier and the durian form feel inevitable.
- An abstract durian look keeps the book an artwork in its own right rather than a souvenir of the exhibition it documents.
What it did
The durian theme became the book's format rather than just its subject: the catalogue is meant to be handled and sensed, not only read. D&AD kept the work in its awards archive.
What you can take
A document can be designed as the thing it documents: when a show's subject is sensory, the catalogue can carry the same form, texture and even taste, making the archive part of the art.
Since then
The triennale was built to travel as a mobile exhibition across three years, and the album was designed as the durian-shaped record of every unit exhibition. D&AD kept the work in its awards archive; the page names the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts as client and documents no separate designer or sales figures.
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