The 20th century, with its emphasis on war and mass industrialization, favored the functionalism of modernism in architecture, design, and other areas. This saw such elements as decoration, embellishment, playfulness and humor pushed to the sidelines in design. The rise of a more consumerist economic system later in the century, however, created the chance for these elements to make a comeback.
One of the important movements that responded to this aesthetic challenge was the Memphis Group, a collection of like-minded designers, whose only connection to Memphis was that Bob Dylan's song "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" provided the background music to the group's first meeting.
The latest exhibition at the 21—21 Design Sight museum in Roppongi takes a look at this important Postmodernist movement through the relationship between two of the group's key members, the Austrian-born Italian designer, Ettore Sottsass, and the Japanese designer Shiro Kuramata.