<design/Austrian><mIlan>
Surprising Ingenuity - Austrian Design in Milan
April 14 to 19, 2010
Art&Idea is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition Surprising Ingenuity - Austrian Design, presenting a comprehensive survey of recent Austrian furniture and interior design including site-specific interventions by leading designers and artists such as EOOS, Dejana Cabiljo, Walking Chair, Polka, Aldo Giannotti as well as Chris Haring and Andreas Berger from Liquid Loft. The exhibition takes place at the Fabrica Galvanotecnica Bugatti in Milan's Zona Tortona, Via Bugatti 7 from 14th through 19th of April 2010 in parallel to the Salone Internazionale del Mobile.
The curator of Surprising Ingenuity - Austrian Design is Robert Punkenhofer and the exhibition is hosted by Advantage Austria - the Austrian Foreign Trade Promotion Organisation. The exhibition title reflects not only the DNA of Austria's creatives but also the genius loci that helped the Bugatti family create an amazing symbiosis of artistic talent and technical skill over a hundred years ago: the perfect setting for displaying some of the most exciting contemporary designs by companies like Bene, Neue Wiener Werkstätte, Viteo and Wittmann, who all demonstrate inventiveness, precise craftsmanship and technological edge as a common trademark.
Artistic interventions transform the Fabrica Bugatti into a space that addresses all the senses. Design collective EOOS arrang mirrors to evoke the illusion of new spaces and endless corridors. Choreographer Chris Haring and musician Andreas Berger from the dance company Liquid Loft reanimate iconic Thonet chairs. Dejana Kabiljo invites visitors to Let Them Sit Cake!, an installation made of flour and chocolate icing. Polka and Aldo Giannotti reveal unorthodox approaches to spotlight product design. Walking Chair present new creations of their Animal Farm, including live singing performances.
EOOS, founded in 1995 by Martin Bergmann, Gernot Bohmann and Harald Gründl – all 3 graduates from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna – have ever since their start worked for some of the most prestigious design-led companies worldwide such as Adidas, Giorgio Armani, Duravit as well as Walter Knoll, Dedon, Bulthaup and Mateo Grassi, to name a few. Highly specialised in product and furniture design as well as brand spaces, EOOS tackle all of their projects with a “poetic analysis”, digging deeply into the systemic roots of human behaviour, revisiting the ancient myths and rituals that dominate intuitive action by individuals and society at large. The result of this research-driven approach is design that is emotionally charged and at the same time radically reduced in physical expression: pure beauty in an artistic sense and visionary from a technological viewpoint. Rewarded with all major design prizes such as Red Dot Best of the Best, IF, GOOD DESIGN and Compasso d’Oro, EOOS showcase at the Fabrica recent works such as the wine glass, Alberto’s Vinyard for Allessi, an office table and chair for Austrian furniture producer Bene as well as an ecologically groundbreaking lighting system for Zumtobel. A centrepiece for Surprising Ingenuity is EOOS’s site-specific installation Raumsplitter (“space splitter”) that reflects, expands and transforms not only the exhibition room and the visitors, but also the notion of Austrian furniture design. Raumsplitter crosses the boundaries of fine art, interiorand furniture design, reminding the viewer of the aesthetic qualities of functional objects produced by the great Minimalists Donald Judd, Dan Flavin and Richard Tuttle.
Choreographer Chris Haring, musician Andreas Berger and lighting designer Thomas Jelinek from Vienna-based Liquid Loft – one of the foremost contemporary dance companies and winner of the Golden Lion for the best dance performance at the Venice Biennale in 2007 – present an unconventional production in the context of Zona Tortona and the furniture fair. Manipulating an Austrian design classic, Liquid Loft places the ubiquitous bent-wood Thonet chairs on centre stage in a performative intervention entitled Living Room. The concept of this piece literally animates and simultaneously reframes the furniture in a very distinctive light and sound environment. Inspired by meubles parlantes (“speaking furniture”) with inlays in the form of poems, proverbs and inscriptions – a craft very popular during Classicism and Art Nouveau – Haring and Berger create a sonic landscape, where the aseptic character of design objects is transformed into a living sculpture. Suddenly, the Thonet chairs start to move and communicate with each other, exploring the question: what is our furniture doing when we are not around?
Originally from Italy and Switzerland, internationally acclaimed design-duo Karl Emilio Pircher and Fidel Peugeot founded Walking Chair in 2003 in the very heart of Vienna. Pircher and Peugot studied product design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and communication design at the University of Design in Basel as well as mechanical engineering and music, respectively. Ever since they joined forces, they have been working across disciplines and have established their studio as a fusion of a design laboratory, gallery and retail shop. The scope of their work reaches from product design with a focus on furniture and graphic design all the way to architecture and artistic projects. All creations are charged with a high degree of playfulness, humour and witty manufacturing talent. Over the last couple of years, Walking Chair was invited to all major design festivals across the globe, from 100% London to Design Week in Tokyo. Not without reason, Pircher and Peugeot were invited to propose the visual communication line for Surprising Ingenuity. At the same time, they also present the multifunctional You May furniture piece for the urban public space as well as the idiosyncratic and custom made Animal Farm interior series. According to their slogan “We make things and songs”, visitors have the pleasure to listen to newly composed songs performed live by Walking Chair during specific exhibition hours.
Let Them Sit Cake! is the title of Dejana Cabiljo’s lounge installation, paraphrasing a quote commonly attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette. Instead of cynically ignoring the human condition by invoking the phrase, Cabiljo rather takes a very optimistic approach and associates her work with mouth-watering pastry that reflects the Viennese spirit in its finest tradition. Using nearly 2 tons of flour as well as 30 litres of chocolate icing (reusable polyurethane sponge), Cabiljo invites visitors to take a rest on an oversized cake in the shape of a most comfortable sofa. In times of uncertainty and crisis, Let Them Sit Cake! offers a moment of sweetness, indulgence and joy. With her sensual and sometimes provocative projects, Cabiljo is a regular exhibitor at Zona Tortona. Born in Split, Croatia, she graduated from the architecture faculty at the University of Belgrade and the Domus Academy in Milan. She founded Cabiljo Inc. in Vienna in 2001 focusing on the design and limited series production of pieces that frequently refer to the little obsessions, bad habits and compulsive actions of consumers, re-contextualising these critical emotional energies into positive connotations of human behaviour. Cabiljo’s work has been widely exhibited at renowned institutions and festivals worldwide such as the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, Salon Maison et Objet in Paris, Designersblock in London, the Parsons School of Design Gallery in New York and IDEE in Tokyo.
The design label Polka was established by Marie Rahm and Monica Singer in 2004 in Vienna. The two designers – both graduates from the University of Applied Arts – work for a number of Austrian and international clients in the fields of furniture and product design, including Wittmann, Lobmeyr, Bene, Herend, Authentics and Laufen. In the exhibition, Polka’s work can be explored through recent projects such as a sofa system executed for Wittmann and a glass collection for Lobmeyr. In addition, Polka was invited to design the exhibition for the “holy grail” of the Fabrica: the 2 rooms of the historic electroform technical laboratory, a kitchen-like setting where some of the most outstanding Austrian tabletop companies find a perfect stage. The presentation entitled Wiener Blut (“Vienna Blood”) highlights the enormous passion with which the manufacturers bring their products to unique perfection. The colour red visualises this entrepreneurial strength by surrounding or completely filling the objects placed in the laboratory context. This presentation of Austrian tabletops set up by Polka reflects their own search for the beautiful, the extraordinary and the pleasure of everyday life experiences while venturing out to new design challenges with congenial producers.
Aldo Giannotti was born in Genoa, Italy and has lived and worked in Vienna since 2000. He studied fine art and photography at the Fine Art Academies in Carrara, Italy, Wimbledon, England and Munich, Germany. In recent years, he participated in numerous exhibitions and video festivals at venues such as the Kunsthalle Wien, the Essl Museum, the Art Foundation in Athens and Forum Stadtpark in Graz, Austria. His work will be featured in the upcoming Linz Triennale at the Lentos Museum and the Bucarest Biennale. In his performance work, Giannotti frequently intervenes in social settings, manipulating the behaviour, movement and interaction of the viewers, juxtaposing and stressing the differences in their cultural, national, political and even religious identities. For his site-specific installation in the staircase of the exhibition venue, he converts a sky projector that is usually used outdoors to highlight the entrance to Surprising Ingenuity and to catch the attention of potential visitors to other popular venues such as clubs. Due to the limited indoor space, the overcharged light beam itself nearly turns into a physical object that projects a glowing Moon on the ceiling of the Fabrica.
These artistic and design interventions provide a perfect backdrop to tell the story of Austrian design. Ever since the Thonet family revolutionised the furniture industry out of their workshop in the 6th district in Vienna and Ferdinand Porsche drove around with the first car powered by a hybrid electrical motor in 1902, Austrian design history has proudly produced some of the most genius creators of furniture, product design and architecture worldwide – from Adolf Loos, Otto Wagner and Josef Hoffmann and the Wiener Werkstätte to outstanding personalities such as Frederick Kiesler and Josef Frank; and in the latter part of last century, the fascinating designers and architects such as Hermann Czech, Carl Auböck and Victor Papanek. The exhibition Surprising Ingenuity documents that this splendid legacy is continuing with high energy: companies and designers alike keep on pushing the limits of design in Austria. Without wanting to create an artificial brand of Austrian Design, there are common qualities that unite Thonet and Loos of yesterday with Bene and EOOS of today such as a radical obsession with developing the most cutting edge technical and ecological solutions, the never ending quest for outstanding materials and craftsmanship and a formal design language that successfully combines a paradox of refined emotion with reduced aesthetic expression.
For further information on the exhibition and related programs such as the Austrian Design Party on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 from 9pm to midnight in cooperation with Red Bull Music Academy featuring a line-up of:
Live: Tensnake (Permanent Vacation, Hamburg)
Live: Ad Bourke (Rome)
DJ Marco Passarani (Final Frontier, Rome)
DJ Felix Fuchs (Vienna)
You can visit http://www.juicypool.com/gallery/awo_mailand/
download Flyer & PosterTo receive information on ART&IDEA and it’s programs, please contact Reanne Leuning.