Paola Antonelli
design Curator / Research director
Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator Architecture & Design at New York’s MoMA. Portrait: Marton Perlaki
Interview by Janne Ryan | Photography by Marton Perlaki, Heidi Bohnenkamp, MArtin Seck, denis doorly
Paola Antonelli describes design as the ‘highest form of human creative expression’. But good design, she says, has a high moral code: it must not hurt humans, other species, or the environment. Paola heads up design and R&D at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. During COVID she co-founded Design Emergency with UK-based design writer Alice Rawsthorn.
WHAT DO YOU DO?
I work at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City where I’m Senior Curator of Architecture and Design, and the Director of Research and Development. In practical terms, I organise exhibitions, add objects to MoMA’s permanent collection, organise public programs, respond to press, visitors’ and members’ requests, and uphold MoMA‘s mission.
WHY DO YOU DO THIS?
I am passionate and committed to design and the role R&D plays in discovering and prototyping new ways to deal with life issues, big and small. I consider it the highest form of human creative expression, requiring everything that art requires, but also it’s a reality check because (good design) should not hurt either humans, other species, or the environment.
Broken Nature exhibition, La Triennale di Milano. Photo: Gianluca Di Ioia
HOW DID YOU GET INTO DESIGN? WHAT ROLE DID CHANCE play?
It was definitely by chance. As a teenager, I was all over the place. At university (in Italy), I first did two years of economics and then switched to architecture. While in architecture school, I was recruited to be a ‘gofer’ at an architecture exhibition at the Triennale in Milano, where I grew up. That’s how it all began to happen.
YOUR JOB AT MoMA?
I got my job at MoMA by answering an ad in a magazine. Along the way, I had dozens of serendipitous encounters that redirected me, sometimes subtly and at other times more dramatically. To describe my career I often use the metaphor of surfing – a lot of paddling and hard work, and then the ability and luck to catch the right waves.
Little Black Dress, MoMA. Photo: Martin Seck
YOUR NEW PROJECT – DESIGN EMERGENCY?
Alice Rawsthorn (UK design-writer) and I began Design Emergency in April 2020. We’d noticed new formats of live engagement that were becoming more and more familiar – in particular, IG Live – and we wanted to highlight and celebrate the ingenious design solutions that were showing up all over the world in response to highly critical circumstances, such as COVID. Alice was already running a series about design in a pandemic on her own Instagram feed, so a lot of research was already there. It’s been a labor of love and friendship, and a way to further our shared mission. The series continues. All interviews are available in our IGTV channel (link at end of interview).
Energy installation, MoMA. Photo: Heidi Bohnenkamp
YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES?
My strengths: I am a very tough cookie and a survivor. I have strong discipline and a very robust moral compass. I also am very attuned to design, naturally. I notice great examples and connect them together and to other disciplines. I have a good synthesis ability. My weaknesses: I don’t understand politics. I’m often spread too thin. I’m very thin-skinned. I do not know how to prioritise.
WHERE DO YOU LIVE, AND WHY?
I live in downtown Manhattan. When I moved here, it was Chinatown. The relentless dynamic of the city has pushed many of the people I used to know further away. In the past year and a half, for example, many art galleries have migrated here from Chelsea. The watershed of Canal Street, historically an uncontrollable free zone of informal commerce, is slowly giving in to pop-ups and more formal establishments, and to those damn banks. I am invested in New York, psychologically, and humanly – and financially, though that was never the first calculus. Through thick and thin, New York is unique because New Yorkers are unique: generous, compassionate, resilient, eternally curious and interested in neighbours and strangers alike.
Neri Oxman Material Ecology exhibition, MoMA 2020. Photo: Denis Doorly
“My audience of reference are kids. They are really tough critics and understand design instinctively.”
HOW DO YOU FIND YOUR AUDIENCE? OR, DO THEY FIND YOU?
I am lucky because I work at an institution that is at the very centre of the world. Under normal circumstances, not in the middle of a pandemic, of course. All sorts of audiences come my way, from design experts to people who don’t even know they’re interested in design. Without being corny, my audience of reference are kids. They are really tough critics and understand design instinctively.
Street fashion, MoMA. Photo: Martin Seck
GAME-CHANGER MOMENT?
Switching from economics to architecture. That’s it. I feel that that is the only decision I’ve ever made. Everything else came my way.
YOUR GOALS?
I work all the time, very hard, and I feel that sometimes that’s counterproductive. I would like to be more efficient and focused. My goal is to make people understand the importance of design and help them become aware and critical, so they can push back and demand better from companies, retailers, institutions, and governments. Design is for the people.
Neri Oxman Material Ecology exhibition, MoMA 2020. Photo: Denis Doorly
HOW DO YOU STAY FOCUSED?
Well, that’s exactly the problem! My problem is not maintaining my job – I’ve been at MoMA for 27 years – but focusing. And especially prioritising. If anybody has a good method or trick, I’m all ears!
WHAT ROLE DOES RISK PLAY IN YOUR WORK?
I take a lot of intellectual risks, advancing ideas that are not yet current and pushing for them, often in a prescient way. But I’m very risk-averse when it comes to my job and financial security.
Broken Nature exhibition, La Triennale di Milano. Photo: Gianluca Di Ioia
“I’ve been lucky and privileged. I’m not sure I would be able to speak this way if I had encountered true challenges in my upbringing.”
HOW DO YOU PUSH THROUGH DIFFICULTIES? UNDERSTAND FAILURE?
Well, luckily I’m very stubborn. And a bulldozer. Also, in hindsight and after the wounds are healed, I never consider anything a failure, just par for the course. I like scars. I strongly believe that things happen for a reason. I have to admit, however, I’ve been lucky and privileged. I am white, middle-class, good parents, good free education in Italy. I’m not sure I would be able to speak this way if I had encountered true challenges in my upbringing.
MoMA. Photo: Martin Seck
“Something I had to learn is to ask for help. When you ask, people give.”
HOW DO YOU APPROACH COLLABORATION?
I try to live my life according to a very simple principle: respect. That is how I set up collaborations, lead teams, manage projects, deal with relationships. I respect other people’s expertise, share tasks, and give credit. When people know they can count on your respect, they’re always ready to help in situations of difficulties because they have been by your side when things were good. Something I had to learn in life however is to ask for help. When you ask, people give. If you don’t, out of pride or insecurity, you’re on your own.
Energy installation, MoMA. Photo: Heidi Bohnenkamp
WHAT KEEPS YOU AWAKE AT NIGHT?
I am very fearful. For myself but especially for the people I love. I’m afraid of them dying. That keeps me up at night.
“When people know they can count on your respect, they’re always ready to help.”
YOUR HARDEST LESSON? WHAT KEEPS YOU HONEST?
My husband, definitely. He is my litmus test and my guru. And the awareness that life is short and that you only have very few chances to make your mark and steer the world in a good direction.
Totems, Neri Oxman and the Mediated Matter Group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019. Photo: Gianluca Di Ioia
WHERE TO FROM HERE?
I like the direction in which I’m headed. I want to be able to do more of what I do and better, it’s as simple as that. I want to be a better person, wife, sister, daughter, aunt … and I want to find more time to focus, read, watch, and learn. To live life. And I cannot wait to travel again!
