marți, 15 iulie 2008

VIENNA DESIGN WEEK 2008 as design festival with an international layout

New issue October 2 until 12 – more compact than last year, and tighter,
more enthralling, more international than before


The VIENNA DESIGN WEEK lets visitors see and feel the multifaceted producing in the fields
of product, furniture and industrial design from October 2 until 12. After the successful
festival premiere last year the event programme presents the work of designers from Austria
and the world in Vienna.
With help of numerous partners – stretching from Viennese museums and producers, over
shops and design institutions to designers from all over the world – for ten intense days
Vienna will become a platform for design. Again, Neigungsgruppe Design – Tulga Beyerle,
Thomas Geisler und Lilli Hollein – is responsible for programme and realisation.
“The first year revealed that Vienna has the potential to position itself with a design
festival”, says Neigungsgruppe Design happily. “The Austrian design scene needs a stage
like this to visualise and exchange ideas on an international level. We aim at developing an
independent programme for the future that strengthens Vienna sustainably as a design city.”
Vice mayor and economic councillor Renate Brauner summarises why departure and the City
of Vienna get involved with the festival: “Design is all around us. It often enriches and eases
everyday life, but is only made clearly visible by events such as the VDW. Design is a crucial
part of the Creative Industries as an important and dynamic economic factor for our city.
The input of design can be an essential advantage in competition. We have to make people
more aware of this. This is why I am happy that departure and the City of Vienna are once
again partners of the VDW and I am looking forward to the multifaceted programme.“
Brigitte Jank, president of the Vienna Economic Chamber, has good reasons, too, for
supporting the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK: “Professional creative accomplishments are an
important impulse transmitter for the Viennese economy – one reason for the Vienna
Economic Chamber to support VIENNA DESIGN WEEK again this year. The design festival
has the potential to show Viennese creativity and make it well-known. For this reason it
provides an economic surplus. As partner of important creative initiatives such as the
VIENNA DESIGN WEEK the Vienna Economic Chamber underlines the importance of
entrepreneurial power in the creative sector. Thus, Vienna can be positioned as first-class
creative and economic location.”

Specials provide thematic variety
The newly created series of specials is a central aspect of VIENNA DESIGN WEEK and
extends the thematic variety to international positions. “Design Open Air“ starts with the
festival opening on October 2 when the installation by Kram/Weisshaar and Rieder Smart
Elements is uncovered on the forecourt of Liechtenstein Museum. The design duo was just
awarded with the “Designers of the Future Award 2008“ by “Design Miami/Basel“. Together
with Rieder, the Austrian manufacturer of light-weight concrete discs, they develop a largesize
installation which will later be divided into segments and will then be on display all
around town.
A Design Safari in cooperation with Architekturzentrum Wien allows tours through the
scene in Bratislava and the Designblok-Festival in Prague. This offer accomodates the
networking and visualisation of design activities in the Central European area.
Another novelty of VIENNA DESIGN WEEK’s programme is a prize for young design talents,
the focus on toddlers together with design °mobil of the University of Applied Arts and Zoom
Children’s Museum, a film series and a series of talks as well as a symposium.
Like last year VIENNA DESIGN WEEK presents a country specific exhibition in Vienna: the
Netherlands, this time. The Nederlands Architectur Instituut (NAi) shows “Tangible Traces“
in the Austrian Museum of Ethnology. Different programme partners, from museums to
design shops, offer an even greater variety of exhibitions, events, and other in-house design
positions.
Supported by Vienna Economic Chamber and departure the ten interventions of the “Paths
of Passion 2008” are one key element of VIENNA DESIGN WEEK. Being invited by
Neigungsgruppe Design, ten designers or design teams create site-specific installations in
Viennese shops. On a curious trip through Vienna the public can discover places with charm
as well as young, international design. Designers this year include – amongst others: Nicole
Aebischer (CH), Maxim Velcovský (CZ), Bartosz Mucha (PL) und Marco Dessi (Italy) as well
as Austrian stars such as EOOS and Gregor Eichinger. In the framework of One Night
Stand visitors can ask designers about their everyday life in rooms of the Hotel The Levante
Parliament.
The question „where to go?“ will have a clear answer in Vienna in October: parties and
cocktails call for dancing shoes and let you relish the start into a a design autumn at VIENNA
DESIGN WEEK in Vienna – a city full of design.

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