VIENNA DESIGN WEEK NEWS 4/24

Buon ferragosto, dear reader!

Instead of being on the beach or in the mountains, the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK team is working at full speed on the festival programme - and with great pleasure! Year after year, it is a great pleasure to bring various new and established aspects and participants to the festival and to see their content grow. 
The full programme and the folding plan will be available as usual from the beginning of September. Until then, we will give you a taste of what to expect here, on social media and on our website. 

This year, there will also be something to experience a month before the festival starts. And for a change, not in Vienna, but in Tyrol at the European Forum Alpbach. The Forum has invited the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK to jointly design a programme item in the Arts and Culture programme. We suggested holding a speculative election about the perhaps not so distant future. You can find out exactly what happens there below.

Another thing we are particularly pleased about: the Passionswege have found a new patron in the form of Wientoursimus. Two projects can be realised this year. One is Alexandre Delasalle with Kupferstichatelier Lubach and the other is Flora Lechner with Lobmeyr. Today's newsletter also reveals more about this.

The ever-popular school tours are now open for bookings. Theresa Kraus is taking on this important job of organising the tours this year - many thanks to her and the OeAD for their renewed support. 

Have fun immersing yourself in the world of the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK!

TOPICS OF THIS NEWSLETTER

1. PASSIONSWEGE

2. EUROPEAN FORUM ALPBACH

3. SCHOOL TOURS

4. THE VDW-TEAM

PASSIONSWEGE

Since its inception, the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK has brought international and Austrian designers together with Viennese craft businesses as part of the Passionswege format. In these encounters, which take place free of commercial constraints, the tandems of craftspeople and designers can pursue their passion: They experiment, share knowledge and create installations together that reflect this creative process.

The Passionswege not only offer the participants space for creative development, but also invite the public to rediscover traditional Viennese businesses. In this way, craftsmanship remains alive in Vienna and is promoted beyond mere museum preservation. The Vienna Tourist Board recently became the patron of this oldest festival format.

Alexandre Delasalle with the engraving and printing studio Lubach

A BUZZING PROCESSION
The Viennese engraver Kirsten Lubach and the French designer Alexandre Delasalle share an interest in imagery and written characters. During the course of their Passionswege cooperation they devised an anachronistic new edition of traditional copperplates that combines classical rocaille ornament (shellwork) with typographic embellishments, mecha-manga insects, and advertising photographs from supermarkets – and thus added a beguiling new pictorial cosmos to the floral repertoire that is characteristic to engraving. The result is an artfully designed natural paradise with carefully developed details. The curious “Where’s Wally” image not only represents a remarkable symbiosis of traditional handcraft and state-of-the-art design, but also symbolizes the preservation of the legacy of the Viennese copperplate printer Wolfgang Schön, whose Passionswege cooperation with Studio Es in 2016 is the stuff of legends and who was succeeded by Kirsten Lubach in 2021.

Flora Lechner with LOBMEYR

TAMED IMBALANCE
A mobile is a gently floating form that is set in motion by external influences such as a slight breath of wind – and, hence, is constantly seeking a state of equilibrium. For the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK, the designer Flora Lechner and the traditional Viennese company LOBMEYR have transferred this playful dance between balance and imbalance to a deconstructed version of the crystal chandelier that acts as a metaphor for the choreography of the range of skills that played a part in its manufacture. A decisive aspect of the design is the harmonious combination of metal and glass that is typical of the meticulous manual work that goes into every LOBMEYR chandelier. The artisans usually start by creating a formative metal structure that is then clad with crystal glass. In the case of the Lechner-LOBMEYResque mobile, however, the two materials are dependent upon each other and merge to form a symbiotic structure with moving arms and hanging counterweights. The design gives the artisans the freedom to individually choose the number of crystals strung onto this structure. This randomness ensures that each object is a unique piece, whose beauty lies in this balanced disorder – and only when it refracts the light is this tamed luxury able to shine in its full glory!

SCHOOL TOURS 2024

What constitutes good design? Does it encompass more than just the aesthetic design of an object? Yes! One of the main aims of the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK is to give young people in particular the opportunity to develop an independent awareness of design. As part of the festival, this happens through playful contact with a wide variety of design approaches and exchange with peers as well as with experts and trained mediators. 

Once again, the popular VIENNA DESIGN WEEK school tours, for which the OeAD will once again provide funding, are an important format for this. Teachers can now book appointments online via our booking system. 

This makes the start of school really fun! 
viennadesignweek.at/schultouren