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Surprising Ingenuity - Austrian Design Vision
April, 2011
Art&Idea is pleased to announce the extension of the exhibition dates of "Surprising Ingenuity - Austrian Design Vision" at FAD Design Centre in Barcelona until April 30th, 2011, recommends the publication "A way beyond Creative Industries" at Folio Publishers and announces it´s new address at Calle Aribau 175 in the modernist centre of Eixample in Barcelona, Spain.
"Surprising Ingenuity" gives an overview of current design praxis in Austria, encompassing industrial, product and furniture design from leading companies such as Red Bull, Swarovski, Bene, KTM, Wolford and Lobmeyer. In addition the exhibition features several interventions at the crossroads of design, architecture, art and dance by and_i, Gilbert Bretterbauer, Dejana Cabilijo, Arquitectos/Dieter Spath, Andreas Thaler and EOOS. Liquid Loft features a version of "Living Room" framing the show within the context of Thonet´s famous chair number 14 and asking the question, "What is our furniture doing when we are not at home".
Without any false pretentions of constructing a national design language in times of globalisation, the exhibitions still highlights some common traits of contemporary design in Austria today. All of the presented companies and design statements are characterised by their obsession with the solution of technical problems, mostly in very small niches of industry and trade, best documented by the worldwide leading developer of car engines AVL. Secondly, the show clearly proves the passion of Austria based companies and designers for unique materials and its ever more specialised development, such as high tech steel by Böhler Uddeholm, ever more sophisticated solutions in glass by Lobmeyr - having already worked with Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos during the Wiener Werkstätte period in the early 20th century and still today with avant-garde designers such as Marco Dessi and Ted Muehling. And last but not least, all objects and projects are united by a very much reduced, even minimalist formal approach, an aesthetic which is then again charged up with emotion, double meaning and humour.
Karim Rashid once commented that "Austria has a unique position on the world map. Creatively and physically it is right in the middle, between the poetry of Italian design, the engineering of German design and the upcoming new creativity in Eastern Europe". To see the exhibition "Surprising Ingenuity - Austrian Design Vision, organised by Advantage Austria and curated by Art&Ideas´s founder and director Robert Punkenhofer, visit FAD - El Foment de les Arts i del Disseny, at Plaza del Angels 5-7 in the historic city centre of Barcelona until Saturday, 30th of April, 2011. Opening hours everyday from 12-8pm.
Karim Rashid´s quote was taken out of "A Way Beyond Creative Industries", published recently by Robert Punkenhofer at Folio Publishers (ISBN 978-3-85256-513-2). On more than 350 pages, this volume gives an encyclopaedic overview of the subject matter, presenting critical thoughts and in-debt essays on creative industries trends in Austria and internationally, facts and figures and commentaries on its economic importance (and/or hype) from experts such as John Howkins, Richard Florida, Justin O´Connor, Eric Poettschacher, Ramnath Narayanswamy, Steven Sack, Nestor Garcia Canclini, Shigeru Uchida and many more. The book can be ordered at www.folioverlag.com or at Amazon.
Last but not least, ART&IDEA is pleased to announce it´s new address in Barcelona, Spain, at Calle Aribau 175, 08036 Barcelona. Robert Punkenhofer has recently accepted the position as Austrian Trade Commissioner in Spain, based in Barcelona and therefore moved Art&Idea to the Catalan capital where he will in parallel to his official posting continue organizing and curating programs at the limits of contemporary art, design and architecture.