ALEXANDER VON VEGESACK

In 1986 Alexander von Vegesack purchased the Domaine de Boisbuchet with the plan to revitalize the complex as a place where people can practise and discover culture in its dialog with nature and agriculture. Following to initial renovations of Boisbuchet’s major buildings he founded the Centre international de recherche et d’éducation culturel et agricole (CIRECA) as a nonprofit organization running Boisbuchet’s program and started an international workshop program in cooperation with Vitra Design Museum. The Centre Georges Pompidou joined this cooperation in 1996. In 2011, the French state prized CIRECA as “Pole d’excellence rurale”.

As a freelance curator and collector of industrial furniture design, Alexander von Vegesack set up the Thonet Museum in Boppard am Rhein and advised international museums in shaping and adding to their design collections. He organized exhibitions in Paris for the Centre Georges Pompidou as well as for the opening of the Musée d’Orsay. He was also commissioned by the American Federation of Arts to conceive the first major exhibition about the history of industrial furniture design which was shown in ten leading American museums. He realized similar projects in Eastern Europe for the German Foreign Ministry.

In 1988 Alexander von Vegesack established the Vitra Design Museum in cooperation with the furniture producer Vitra and headed the museum as the founding director until 2011. In this role, he created a continually changing program of more than sixty internationally touring exhibitions on design and architecture, including the publication of numerous associated catalogues, conceiving and managing the museum as an organization which is able to finance itself almost exclusively. In addition, he initiated in 1996 the annual international museum conference MUSCON for Europe, in 2006 for the USA, and in 2008 for Asia – providing a global forum of museums for design and architecture for the exchange of their ideas and programs.

Alexander von Vegesack handed over Vitra Design Museum’s direction in 2011 and since dedicates himself entirely to the development of the Domaine de Boisbuchet as an international reputed cultural center.

Alexander von Vegesack served as a member of the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, is Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and holds the German order of merit.