eyes wide shut: design & crime at vienna design week 2010

eyes wide shut : design & crime at vienna design week 2010 september 28 – november 14, 2010 MAK– austrian museum of applied arts, stubenring 5, vienna

‘eyes wide shut: design & crime’ at vienna design week 2010 loos tribal guerra vanzetti image © guerra vanzetti, 2010

for generations of austrian designers, the nature and meaning of designed surfaces have been an evolving dialogue about morality, revolution and truth. for this exhibition, a new generation was challenged to contribute to this vienna-born discourse about ‘ornament and crime’ by engaging with a series of everyday decorative acts. activities like cake decoration, tattooing, hairdressing and flower arranging are vernaculars that stand outside high design culture. adopting their techniques and materials, the question about design’s role as a social act is asked. oscillating between high and sub culture, the special and the ordinary, the exhibition explores the potential of the decorative and ornamental as a new joy into the world.

MAK design nite staging and tableware by nina levett image © alexander gruebling/mario rott

MAK nite on tuesday october 5th, 2010 — 9 p.m. until midnight. the exhibition ‘START_UP: designer’s new projects: design criminals or a new joy into the world’, curated by british architect and FAT-cofounder sam jacob will be transformed into a tableau vivant, presenting performances/installations by breadedescalope, bl < m, danklhampl, guerra vanzetti,nina levett, sebastian menschhorn, mischer’traxler, katja nagy/bernadette krejs, andreas pohancenik and patrick rampelotto in collaboration with hairstylists, tattoo artists, pastry chefs and other applied artists, interactive with visitors.

this exhibition is part of the series ‘design>new strategies’, a collaborative project between MAK & departure. starting from the famous ‘ornament and crime’ by the austrian master architect adolf loos, it is devoted to the potentials of the decorative in everyday life and querying the ubiquitous ‘crime scenes’ of morality, revolution and truth.

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vienna design week 2010 (14)