Location Tortona 32
Days 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,
Address via tortona, 32
Zone tortona
Swarovski Crystal Palace will showcase work by four international designers in a ground-breaking exhibition that will take visitors on an experiential journey
Swarovski Crystal Palace has commissioned five international designers to interpret the beauty of Swarovski crystal and incorporate their vision into a piece of design.
Tokujin Yoshioka from Tokyo, French-born, Tokyo-based Gwenaël Nicolas, Belgian architect Vincent van Duysen, Dutch architectural lighting designer Rogier van der Heide and Swiss-born, San-Francisco-based designer Yves Béhar have each created strikingly different concepts.
Several of this year’s designs are deceptively simple, allowing the end user a role in the creative process, while at the same time being technically advanced. The final designs are a sculptural piece, an art object or have a decidedly architectural quality. While Nadja Swarovski is a true patron of experimental design, the crystals themselves have a tendency to bring out the playful and poetic in each designer’s work. “Swarovski Crystal Palace is a platform for creative expression and experimentation with innovation and technology,” Nadja Swarovski comments. “Our designer collaborations not only push the boundaries of the designers’ own work but also of the use of Swarovski crystal in an artistic, decorative and functional way.”
The exhibition brings on board Jules Wright, founder of the The Wapping Project to curate the project. With her background in theatre, Wright will plan a mise-en-scène that will bring to dramatic life the different designers’ works while revealing the extraordinary versatility of Swarovski crystals. “We are delighted to have Jules Wright’s involvement this year in curating the show. Her concepts will help each piece tell its story,” Nadja Swarovski, Vice President of International Communications at Swarovski, comments.
Each designer’s creation will be showcased in a separate room, and for the first time colour will be introduced to the backdrop of each piece to celebrate the refractive nature of the crystal. “Every space will focus the eyes on the specific object and the environments will contextualise each piece in a theatrical way,” Wright explains.
The guiding theme for the setting of each room, has been inspired by the idea of different types of palace – from Versailles with its hall of mirrors, to Japan with its Zen aesthetic, to the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. As visitors move through the exhibition, they will engage on a journey through the different worlds and environments conjured by the designs and contextualization. The journey will culminate in a final room celebrating some of the staggeringly inventive concepts created by the world’s most innovative designers for Swarovski Crystal Palace over the last 8 years.
In 2010 Swarovski Crystal Palace promises to present yet another exhilarating and inspiring series of commissions, demonstrating not only the creative potential of each designers’ work, but also the inimitable atmospheric quality of Swarovski crystal.
