IKEA is part of the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK for the third time. This year, everything revolves around a topic that affects us all – the importance of sleep. In addition to findings from the Austrian sleep study, there are six basics for good sleep to discover. The VIENNA DESIGN WEEK and IKEA have jointly organised the DARE TO DREAM open call. From almost eighty submissions, an expert jury selected three projects that use IKEA products to develop new approaches, surprising installations and statements. 

The Projects

On show are the installation BEEEEEEEEEETT by German artist Oliver-Selim Boualam, a kinetic breathing wall by Slovenian designer Žan Girandon and the walk-in textile landscape CLIMB YOUR DREAMS by Austrian artist duo Lilian Marie Furrer and Agnes Valerie Schlager.

Jury members: Mia Kim and Nikolas Heep (KIM+HEEP), Gabriel Roland and Laura Winkler (VIENNA DESIGN WEEK), and Astrid Grasser and Susanne Istel (IKEA)

BEEEEEEEEEETT
Oliver-Selim Boualam

Backwards and forwards. BEEEEEEEEEETT is a bed that swings as we sleep and cradles us as we dream. Whatever the burdens and stresses of our daily life, BEEEEEEEEEETT ensures that we enjoy a smooth transition from today to tomorrow, every night. Forwards and backwards. BEEEEEEEEEETT was created by stretching and bending the classic IKEA bed “HEMNES”. It thus becomes the rocking bed, in which adults are allowed to be kids again.
oliverboualam.com

CLIMB YOUR DREAMS
Lilian Marie Furrer, Agnes Valerie Schlager

The cloud-shaped landscape of cushions by Lilian Marie Furrer and Agnes Valerie Schlager invites visitors to hang around, interact, dream, and exchange ideas. Inspired by the concept of regularly recurring dreams, the spatial installation plays with the symbolic image of a ladder. For the designers, dreams are the language of our unconscious and the ladder should give us the courage to pursue our dreams and objectives and realize our full potential. Hardly any dream is straightforward and realistic – it is precisely these distortions of reality that enable us to develop new ideas and ways of thinking.
lilianmariefurrer.cargo.site
instagram.com/lasagnes._.__

VARELSE – THE BREATHING WALL
Randon (Žan Girandon)

Breathe in, breathe out … and fall asleep! The interactive installation by the Slovenian designer Randon (Žan Girandon) incorporates a number of IKEA products – from the vertically adjustable writing desk “MITTZON” to the slatted bed base “LÖNSET” – and invites visitors to adapt the rhythm of their breathing to that of the wall of the same name. The special feature: The participants in this meditation exercise are guided not by a person but by a machine. “Varelse” encourages visitors to breathe more calmly as a means of activating their parasympathetic nervous system – tension decreases and stress levels fall! In this way, the human-machine interaction not only underlines the importance of breathing calmly for our wellbeing, but also inspires us to think about the parallels between machine learning and the cognitive functions of sleeping. Because: As we sleep, we are processing stimuli … or even data?
randon.si

PROGRAMME

Fri 20.9., 4pm–5pm
Meet & Greet with the designers of the Open Call (start at IKEA Location)

Sat 21.9.
3pm–5pm: Meet & Greet with the designers of the Open Call (start at IKEA Location)
5pm–10pm: Tea and Betthupferl KEX & Live bed concert with Amelie Tobien (6pm–9pm)

Wed 25.9., Day of the dream

11am: Design Talk with the international IKEA designers Johanna Jelinek & Andreas Fredriksson
1pm: Design Talk with the international IKEA designers Johanna Jelinek & Andreas Fredriksson
5pm–8pm: Live bed concert with Chris Uboh

Fri 27.9., 4pm–5pm
Meet & Greet with the designers of the Open Call (start at IKEA Location)

Sat 28.9., 3pm–5pm
Meet & Greet with the designers of the Open Call (start at IKEA Location)

Sun 29.9., 5pm–8pm
Finissage