ARoS, Århus' Museum of Modern Art will set the scene, as LYNfabrikken shows an exhibition in the museum's beautiful foyer this fall. And since we've been in love with Austrian design for many years, we looked to this small country beyond the Alpes for fantastic things to exhibit. Here we came upon the very unique design exhibition "Fresh Air", which is curated by PureAustrianDesign, and previously has been shown at among others Tokio, Hong Kong and Milan. The exhibition shows both graphic design as typography, illustrations and much more, and product design represented by innovative reinterpretations of the design icon: the chair. The very special thing about this exhibitions isn't just, that it shows works by some of the most exciting Austrian designers, but also the way in which it does so. Every piece of design is installed in a 2 meters high, inflateable bubble of PVC, and is to be experienced wearing 3D-glasses.
In October of 2009 LYNfabrikken got the chance to exhibit at ARoS – Aarhus Art Museum. When the idea of creating an exhibition at ARoS occured we started contemplating what kind of experience we wanted to give the people og Aarhus and everybody else in ARoS’ beautiful setting. The choice fell on the amazing design exhibition “Fresh Air” curated by Austrian ”PureAustrianDesign”.
The exhibition consisted of a selection of the very best and very special from Austrian designers in a coupling of graphic design and product design. This juxtaposition based on the recognition that these two genres often merge. The great diversity and high quality of Austrian graphic design was shown through a series of works from the areas corporate design, publising, typography and promotion. The product design ws represented by modern editions of the Austrians favourite design disciplin: the chair. The development from the classic café chair by Thonet more than a hundred years ago was illustrated by an ample selection of designs that revitalized and reinterpreted the qualities and innovative strength of the chair as a design icon.
The title of the exhibition “Fresh Air” were to symbolize the new winds of inspiration and design blowning not only through but also from Austria towards the rest of the world, finally high lighting Austria on the international design map. But air also played an important role in the architechture of the exhibition. Every piece was installed in a 2 meter high inflated bubble made from see through PVC. The in total 24 pieces made up a futuristic landsacape which had touced down in places like Hong Kong, Tokyo and Milan before occupying Aarhus.
The subtitle “An Austrian Love Story” reffered to the exhibition being the preliminary culmination of LYNfabrikken’s many collaborations with Austrians, which stared with a visit to das möbel in Vienna years earlier. Experiencing the city’s priority of design and innovative use of its public spaces made an enormeus impression on us, and we met people who had the same approach and ambition towards design as we did. Several of these people have since become our business partners and friends– as well as important parts of our “Austrian Love Story”. It was a great pleassure to have ARoS bubbling with Austrian design and Denmark blown away by inspiration from Austria – with love.
The exhibition opening at ARoS was a beautiful collision of design, white wine, speakers, music and lovely people wearing their 3D-glasses in order to get the full experience of “Fresh Air”.
Along with the exhibition our Austrian friends brought a catalogue featuring the many exhibited pieces – and the very important 3D-glasses. Here you can see all the designs as they were shown in that catalogue – you will have to provide your own 3d-glasses though.