Alexander von Vegesack is the founder and Director of the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany. As a freelance curator and collector of industrial furniture design, Alexander von Vegesack set up the Thonet Museum in Boppard am Rhein, and advised international museums in shaping and adding to their design collections. Alexander organized exhibitions in Paris for the Centre Georges Pompidou as well as the Musée d'Orsay, and was commissioned by the American Federation of Arts to conceive the first major exhibition on the history of bentwood furniture, which was shown at ten leading US museums. Alexander realised similar projects in Eastern Europe for the German Foreign Ministry, and in 1989 established the Vitra Design Museum in cooperation with furniture manufacturer Vitra, which Alexander has headed since its inception. Alexander conceived an independent foundation financing itself almost exclusively through its own performance.

As the Museum’s found and director, Alexander has created a continually changing programme of internationally touring exhibitions on design and architecture, including the publication of numerous associated catalogues and other materials.

In addition, Alexander initiated an annual European museum conference to provide the most important museums in these fields with a forum for the exchange of ideas and programmes.

For over ten years, Alexander has also worked with the Vitra Design Museum and the Centre Georges Pompidou to organise an internationally recognised seminar programme in France for designers and architects, as well as artists, craftsmen and artisans from various disciplines. In March 2008 the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli in Torino, Italy opened an exhibition about his private collection "Scoprire il Design – La Collezione von Vegesack".

Alexander von Vegesack served as a member of the Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, is Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and holds the German Order of Merit.

Links:

www.design-museum.de

www.boisbuchet.org

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