The Bakalowits company has been handcrafting lamps and chandeliers since 1845 and is now in the fifth generation as a family business enterprise. The production range includes chandeliers for home living in all conceivable styles that have emerged in the past three hundred years, also large-scale luminaires for official buildings all over the world (here we’re talking about such dimensions as: 28 times 7 metres)
The young Czech designer Klára Šumová in her project with Bakalowits is not showing a chandelier design, but is making a conceptual approach to the long-established business enterprise: she focuses on the many official and prestigious buildings in Vienna where Bakalowits chandliers are hanging – from the Parliament to the Hotel Imperial – and replaces a glass part from the chandelier with one of her design elements. The originals from the illustrious surroundings are exhibited in the Bakalowits showroom in an almost auratic atmosphere, representing the range and significance of the chandelier maker. In contrast, the original showplaces now have radically modern placeholders hanging within the chandeliers – a real eye-catcher for anyone who notices them.

institutions involved:
Wiener Parlament
Wiener Rathaus
Wiener Hofburg Kongresszentrum
Wiener Staatsoper
Wiener Burgtheater
Wiener Musikverein
Hotel Imperial
SAS Radisson Hotel
Hotel Kaiserwasser
Cafe Weimar (1090)