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The Happy Show

Meditation, cognitive therapy, mood-altering drugs: Sagmeister tested everything that promised happiness and then translated his experiments into the exhibition on view at MAK.

What makes us happy or at least happier?

Stefan Sagmeister, the “grand master of graphic design,” embarked on intensive research into personal happiness, omitting no possible means in the process.

For more than ten years, the charismatic graphic designer concentrated on happiness and the lightness of being. Sagmeister, who closes his New York studio every seven years for some time out, planned his “Happy Show” during his last sabbatical in 2009. With videos, prints, infographics, and sculptures, the inspiring show documents Sagmeister’s intensive experiments on himself and also involves visitors in his happiness research with interactive installations, some of which were made especially for the exhibition.

Drenched in a highly symbolic smiley-yellow, interventions in the Columned Main Hall, the Permanent Collection Contemporary Art, the Design Lab, the Gallery, as well as less prominent areas of the MAK such as the staircases, corridors, and elevators, provide insights into Sagmeister’s mind and experiences of happiness.