Archives
From October 20, 2009
to January 31, 2010
The Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2008
Competition of the Federal Office of culture
Commissioned by the Federal Department of Home Affairs, in 1999 the Federal Office of Culture's Art and Design Department began organizing a yearly competition under the heading "The Most Beautiful Swiss Books".
This year, Swiss creators, publishers and printers of books submitted all of 395 publications; thirty-two of these have been honoured as the most beautiful Swiss books for the year 2008 (a list of the winning titles is appended).
Instead of being limited to a display of the award-winning books, for the first time in the history of this competition, all 395 works submitted in 2008 are to be included.
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Andrea Branzi
Stool, 2007
Base Vitra by Georges Nelson and birchwood seat
18 x 65 x 79 cm
Courtesy Galerie Kreo
© Photo Fabrice Gousset
Peter Marigold
"Flauna Plain", 2007
Shelves
Plywood and wooden boards
160 x 70 cm
© Courtesy Fat Galerie
Yvonne Fehling and Jennie Peiz, Stuhlhockerbank, 2007-2008, oak, oil finish, models’ combination
© Photo Horst Bernhard, Hardheim
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec
"Vegetal Chair Blooming, 2008
Batched-dyed polyamide
81 x 60 x 55 cm
Edited by Vitra AG, Switzerland
Gudrun Lilja / Studiobility
"Rocking Beauty", 2006
Rocking chair
Polycarbonate sheet, plywood and aluminium, water-jet cut
Courtesy Toolsgalerie
© Photo Gudrun Lilja/ Studiobility
Tokujin Yoshioka
"Bouquet", 2008
Armchair
Injected-flame retardant polyurethane foam
77 x 83 x 83 cm
Moroso Milano
© Photo Alessandro Paderni–Studio Eye
Eero Aarnio
"The Tree", 2008
Space divider
Rotomolded polyethylene
181 x 125 x 37 cm
Photo Rauno Johansson
Ineke Hans
"Forest for The Trees Hallstand", 2005
Coat stands
Lacquered metal
195 x 70 cm
© Lensvelt Forest for the Trees designed by Ineke Hans
Piero Gilardi
"Torrente Secco", 1965
Polyurethane foam
170 x 170 x 23 cm
Courtesy Galleria Biasutti & Biasutti, Torino
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec
"Clouds", 2008
Polyethylene foam, textile
Edited for Kvadrat A/S
© Photo: Paul Tahon et R & E Bouroullec
Ilkka Halso
"Restoration – Untitled no 7", 2000
C-Print on aluminium
125 x 171 cm
© Ilkka Halso
Saâdane Afif
"L’esclave", 2005
Yucca and metal chain
50 x 25 cm
Courtesy GDM, Galerie de multiples
Edwin Zwakman
"Backyards – Street II", 2004
C-Print
220 x 157 cm
Courtesy Galerie Akinci, Amsterdam
Meriç Kara
"Blockcrack", 2005
Flower pot
Molded cement
18 x 20 x 20 cm
© Photo: Kartal Arat
Michel Huelin
"Grassbug 1", 2007
Lambda print under plexiglas
75 x 100 cm
Courtesy Galerie Blancpain, Geneva
From June 24, 2009
to September 27, 2009
Nature in a Kit
For several years, the evidence has been there to see: nature is coming back in force in society's discussions as much as in the imagination of contemporary creators. What with the call for collective responsibility to safeguard it and the multiplication of urban substitutes, nature seems omnipresent, whereas we have never been so distanced from it. The central subject of very pragmatic challenges, its original inspirational power is effecting a transformation and confronting mankind with the question of its use. Contemporary creation has made itself into an eloquent interpreter of this and is delineating ...
Designers and artists take pleasure in clouding the issues with literal responses, allusive evocations, never before seen hybridisations and biting visual comments.
The exhibition Nature in a Kit re-composes in its fashion a landscape of our time, a constructed environment which brings together the works of around a hundred creators from all over the world.
Movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsVMbfVbPnc
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Download press release ( pdf - 388 Ko)
Hubert Crevoisier, funerary urn, 2007-2008, blown glass and metallic part
Credit: © Glassworks
Marie Garnier, funerary urns, 2007-2008, blown glass
Credit: © Glassworks
Elisabeth Garouste, Bouquet noir (Black Bunch of Flowers), funerary urns, 2008-2009, blown de-polished glass
Credit: © Glassworks
Alexis Georgacopoulos, vase and funerary urn, 2007-2008, blown glass
Credit: © Glassworks
Jean-Michel Othoniel, funerary urn, 2008-2009, blown glass
Credit: © Glassworks
Pierre Charpin, funerary urns, 2007-2008, blown glass
Credit: © Glassworks
François Bauchet, funerary urn, 2007-2008, blown glass
Credit: © Glassworks
Jean-Baptiste Sibertin-Blanc, funerary urn, 2007-2008, blown glass, glass sheets and corian marble
Credit: © Glassworks
From May 6, 2009
to January 10, 2010
Post Mortem. Ten creators rethink the funerary urn
Death is omnipresent in the media and in our leisure distractions. Yet we avoid direct contact with those lifeless corpses which confront us with our own fragility. Our diversionary tactics vary: over-elaborate ritualisation or, on the contrary, an aseptic and depersonalised relationship.
The funerary urn, an object made to preserve the deceased ashes and dissimulating them in a neutral container, belongs to these tactics. Its aesthetics are usually solemn if not morbid. How to remediate this?
The ambition behind the presentation of Post mortem. Ten creators rethink the funerary urn to explore - via the prototypes conceived by the artists - the way in which creation approaches cremation. All the presented urns were produced by Matteo Gonet, a Swiss glass artist and designer.
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Download the document press ( pdf - 2.7 Mo)


