’In Reverse’ by Ron Arad at Design Museum Holon, Israel

Watch 'Crushing', an exclusive film, narrated by Ron Arad himself, about compressing a series of Fiat 500s for the 'In Reverse' exhibition at the Design Museum Holon. Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates

Fresh from his voyage to Venice aboard the 'Last Train', Ron Arad has arrived in Israel with a fleet of Fiats in tow - albeit squashed ones. The artist-cum-designer, who has forged a career out of cutting, welding and bashing metal, has installed six compressed Fiat 500s in the Design Museum Holon, his largest steel creation to date.

Inside the Corten steel-swathed building in the cultural hub of Holon (home to a slew of design galleries), visitors will find the cars splayed out like paintings on the walls. 'I used to bash metal to make things useful, or useable,' says Arad, who has created chairs for the likes of Vitra and Moroso. 'Here we're doing the reverse.'

The Fiats may read like cartoon cars that have met a nasty fate, yet their surprisingly perfect forms are the result of rigorous experimentation into the way automobiles behave under compression, which began with toy cars in his studio. Achieving the same flattening effect on a larger scale proved tricky - one poor Fiat was even pounded by a digger - yet Arad wanted to go further than the crushed car sculptures by César Baldaccini and John Chamberlain in the 1960s. 'Their work stopped being about cars,' says the Tel Aviv-born but London-based artist. 'They used cars as a source of raw materials to make sculptures out of. The idea here is to allow them to stay cars, yet show them from a new perspective.'

A 500-tonne press capable of an almost instantaneous crush was found in the Netherlands. And a degree of accident was key. 'It's always nice to see things happen in front of you that you are not totally in charge of, that are not exactly the fulfilment of your blueprint,' Arad explains. The pressed cars were then shipped over to Italy for some post-production, or 'embalming'.

So why attack the Fiat 500? 'The car is a national symbol for Italy and our generation, and it's a very endearing vehicle. Everyone has stories about their first ever sex in a Fiat, or first kiss,' says Arad. 'We're not destroying the cars, we're immortalising them.'

The six 'Pressed Flowers', as they affectionately titled, are joined in the Design Museum Holon by a number of metal icons from his past, including the 'Rocking Big Easy Chair' (1991) and the 'D-Sofa' (1994). In fact, the show was first mooted as a survey, a notion to which Arad has always been averse, despite such shows at the Barbican and MoMA. The new works were a fairly recent introduction. 'About nine months ago the script was entirely rewritten,' says curator Lydia Yee, who also masterminded the Barbican show. 'We decided upon a mini survey alongside a brand new body of work.'

'In Reverse' is actually a far more enlightening exhibition about his oeuvre than any survey could have been. For one thing, it has brought to light one of the first triggers for his fascination with metal. During Arad's childhood in Tel Aviv, his father had a severe car crash while driving a Fiat Topolino (the model before the 500), which was made from a mix of wood and metal. The car was completely flattened yet his father survived. Says Arad: 'I will never forget my father's words to us. "Had my car not been made out of wood I wouldn't be alive now".' Thus his interest in metal was born and the seeds for this show were sown.

The new works also hark neatly back to some of his very first efforts, such as the 'Rover Chair' and 'Aerial Light' (1981), both constructed from salvaged car parts. Like these works, they also speak about Marcel Duchamp's notion of the 'readymade' - industrial objects being selected and presented as art with little or no alteration. And they return to the idea of compression, explored with his 'Sticks and Stones' crushing machine installed in the Centre Pompidou in the 1980s and later with the 'Squashed Vipps' in 2008. In this way, the new works provide the linking factor for the different strands of his output, which are distributed around the perimeter of the gallery.

But the exhibition doesn't just look backwards. It also looks to the future, carrying forward his work in the digital realms. The first thing that greets you in the museum is a giant screen showing 'Slow Outburst' (2013), a virtual experiment revealing the simulated effects of the crushing process on the body of a red Fiat 500, made in collaboration with specialists in crash safety design. And the climax of the exhibition is a gleaming new work, the 'Roddy Giacosa', which, as Arad puts it, is 'the perfect symbiosis' of 'physical' and 'digital' making.

This beautiful homage to the Fiat 500 was created by scanning the car, then dissecting the scan into slices to make the mould. The laser cut steel components are completely made by machine, but the only way they could be assembled into the final sculpture was 'by amazing, genius, loving artisans who perform things that we can only sit back and wonder how they do it,' says Arad. For a man who likes to crush cars, it's a surprisingly poetic emblem for the relationship between artisan and computer.  And it's a piece in which visitors can't help but wish they could drive away.

Red car crushed on its side

'Pressed Flower Red' by Ron Arad, 2013, is mounted on the walls of the Design Museum Holon like a 'painting'. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

Close-up view of a crushed red car's headlight and indicator

The Fiat 500s in the show were compressed by a 500-tonne press in The Netherlands. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

Crushed blue car on its side

'Pressed Flower Blue', 2013.

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

A silver and a yellow car body face each other, two other crushed cars hang on the walls

Installation view of the 'In Reverse' exhibition. In the foreground is 'Roddy Giacosa', 2013, Arad's new homage to the Fiat 500. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

Silver body of a car

This gleaming new work was made by scanning the car, then dissecting the scan into slices to make the mould. The laser cut steel components are completely made by machine, but the only way they could be assembled into the final sculpture was 'by amazing, genius, loving artisans that perform things that we can only sit back and wonder how they do it,' says Arad. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

The front and rear views of a car body

The artist-cum-designer describes the Roddy Giacosa as 'the perfect symbiosis' of 'physical' and 'digital' making. Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

The wooden mould for a 1956 Fiat 500

Centro Stile Fiat Wood mould for the Fiat 500, 1956, lent by the Fiat Archive and Museum

(Image credit: press)

Design Museum Holon, a tiered, circular red building

The Ron Arad-designed Design Museum Holon, which opened in 2010, acts as a giant exhibit in the show it hosts. 

(Image credit: Yael Pincus)

Corten steel forms the red ribs of the building

Its curving ribs of Corten steel, oxidised to achieve different tones of red, are giant examples of his work with metal. 

(Image credit: Yael Pincus)

The tiered side of the building, with stairs down to a walkway underneath

The Museum is the chief attraction in a series of design galleries in Holon, which is swiftly becoming a new cultural destination in Israel.

(Image credit: Yael Pincus)

Wallpaper* magazine with Ron Arad's favourite image of the building on the front cover

Back in 2010, Arad chose his favourite image of the building, taken by Asa Bruno, as the limited-edition subscriber cover for our March issue (W*132)

(Image credit: press)

Crushed yellow car

'Press Flower Yellow', 2013. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

Study board for the crushed cars

Study for Pressed Flowers, 2013. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

A digital print of the effects of dropping the Roddy Giacosa

'Let's Drop It, Ok', 2013, is a digital print of the effects of dropping the Roddy Giacosa. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

Digital print of the side view of the car

'Let's Drop It, Ok' (side view), 2013. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

Illuminated sections in an exhibition featuring the artist's past works

Past works, including the 'Tinker Chair', 1988, are shown behind the walls of the central installation, or 'behind-the-scenes', as Arad puts it. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

Black table lamp with a long arm, shining onto a red leather chair

'Aerial Light', and 'The Rover Chair', both from 1981. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

Tilted square of varnished dark wood, with a circular section carved out of it

'Afterthought', 2007. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

Prototype minimalist rocking chair

'Big Easy Volume 1' prototype for 'Rolling Volume', 1988. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

Two abstract objects created from dark wood

'Bodyguard' (foreground), 2008 and 'Afterthought', 2007. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

Freestanding wooden sculpture with indented, gold top

'Bodyguard', 2008. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

Folded, creased piece of metal

'Fake Stamped Genuine', 2013. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

Sofa constructed from reflective, curved metal

'D-Sofa', 1994. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

Red and blue prototype chairs

'No Spring Chicken' prototype for 'Spring Collection', 1991. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

Chair composed of reflective, curved metal

'Rocking Big Easy', 1991. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

Curved sculpture consisting of metal and with a crumpled appearance

'Wrinkly Fish', 1991. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates)

ADDRESS

Design Museum Holon
Pinhas Eilon St. 8
Holon, 5845400
Israel

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Malaika Byng is an editor, writer and consultant covering everything from architecture, design and ecology to art and craft. She was online editor for Wallpaper* magazine for three years and more recently editor of Crafts magazine, until she decided to go freelance in 2022. Based in London, she now writes for the Financial Times, Metropolis, Kinfolk and The Plant, among others.