The plastic collection

Abstract

A new museum and art center, the ADAM (Art & Design Atomium Museum) aims to become a center for art and design exhibitions in Brussels. Installed on the Heysel, the ADAM is housed 200m from the Atomium. It has a permanent exhibition of the collection Plasticarium. Containing plastic items from the 1950s through the 1980s, this collection is unique in the world. It brings together hundreds of plastic items, ranging from the conventional to art work. Other areas offer temporary exhibitions dedicated to the art and design of the twentieth century and today. The 500-piece permanent exhibition, named the Plasticarium by the original collector, Philippe Decelle, is a kaleidoscope of vacuums, Tupperware, typewriters, radios, blow-up chairs, lamps, desks, and even old Apple desktops: a sea of polychromatic polymers. They cast a nostalgic sheen through the industrial and open permanent exhibition space, inviting guests to view the smooth mass-produced items of a bygone era without distraction. The otherworldly shapes are the hallmarks of international designers and visual artists such as César Arman, Joe Colombo, Verner Panton, and Evelyne Axell.