On the occasion of Magnum's 70th anniversary, Plinth, Magnum Photos and publisher Thames & Hudson will present The Magnum Home, a pop-up space combining radical interior design with photography from the Magnum archive.

Curated by Ekow Eshun, and following the critical acclaim of his project 'Made You Look: Dandyism and Black Masculinity' at the Photographers’ Gallery, the exhibition will both span Magnum’s archive and urge the viewer to look at it anew. 'Just Kids: Magnum Photographers on Youth Culture' will explore how Magnum photographers have documented youth culture in Britain and internationally from the 1960s to the present day.

Just Kids focuses on style, deportment and attitude as key factors in how young people have asserted their personal politics and perspectives on gender, race and social status. Youth itself is framed as performance, a means of standing apart from the mainstream and gleefully confounding expectations of respectability.

Chris Steele-Perkins whisks us to late 70s Wolverhampton, and into the dancehalls, church congregations and house parties of the city’s varied inhabitants. Michael Christopher Brown’s Paradiso series, Cuba 2015, captures the growing electronic music scene and David Hurn’s Isle of Wight Festival images, documents a cross section of the 150,000 people who turned up to see Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Who and Joni Mitchell.

Throughout the building, young designer Yinka Ilori will stage his characteristically vibrant interventions; inspired by the bold colours of Nigerian prints and textures, his work has spanned furniture making to full-scale installations. In The Magnum Home, Ilori will conceive an ambitious response to ideas of the home as they intersect with those of youth. Rooms such as studies, bedrooms and salons will operate as fully immersive spaces – get in touch with your inner teenager and compose some tortured poetry in the library, slouch at the desk or nap on the sofa. The photographs will serve as a catalyst for, and unifying force between, Ilori’s design and Eshun’s practice.

Magnum have collaborated with Plinth to produce a range of unique merchandise, launching alongside The Magnum Home to coincide with a programme of anniversary exhibitions and events planned across the globe. The range will offer the public a chance to engage directly with the work of some of the best photographers in the world; established names like Martin Parr will sit beside those of Magnum’s contemporary photographers on products such as silk scarves, tote bags and resin badges. As well as this in-house collection, shelves in The Magnum Home will be stocked with monographs, field notebooks, sketchpads and other print materials supplied by Thames & Hudson and reflecting Magnum’s long association with and love for the photobook – including Magnum’s official 70th anniversary publication Magnum Manifesto, a landmark photography publication by editors Clement Cheroux and Clara Bouyeresse demonstrating Magnum’s ability to navigate the points between photography as art object and photography as documentary evidence. Shelves will be stocked with monographs, field notebooks, sketchpads and other print materials supplied by Thames and Hudson and reflecting Magnum’s long association with and love for the photobook – including Magnum’s official 70th anniversary publication Magnum Manifesto, a landmark photography publication by editors Clement Cheroux and Clara Bouyeresse demonstrating Magnum’s ability to navigate the points between photography as art object and photography as documentary evidence.

17 - 21 May 2017
44 Great Russell Street, WC1B 3PA
FREE
open 11am - 7pm Wednesday to Saturday, and 12pm - 5pm on Sunday