transalpino: 'open progress' at DMY berlin design festival 09

the huge mind-map of objects made from veneer image courtesy of anne deppe

13 designers – 7 days – 1 material. those were the components which made-up the ‘open progress’ exhibition by transalpino at the DMY berlin design festival. the german-italian collective focused on the material, veneer, piling it high within the display windows and across the floor of the exhibition space in berlin’s prenzlauer berg borough. in the middle of the room, there was a U-shaped table, a workspace provided for shaping, folding, cutting, stapling or gluing the thin wood.

the 13 designers of transalpino, gathered in the space for seven days and developed pieces solely from veneer. they made ‘ad hoc objects’ and hung them on the wall, with chalk arrows leading from one piece to the next, a kind of 3D mind-map documenting the process of how the designers’ products came into being and how they linked, showing that no one object can stand alone, that each one is linked to another.

the exhibition was meant to be an experiment where the focus wasn’t on the actual products created, but on the interactions and process of making, testing the limits of designing in a public space. not only were the products displayed, but the designers’ actions were a kind of performance of ‘open progress’. the workshop rules promoted creativity and experimentation: ‘adopting ideas is encouraged’, ‘copyright-free zone’ and ‘no mass production’.

veneer product mind-map image courtesy of anne deppe

evolution of a fruit box stool image courtesy of anne deppe

a birdhouse image courtesy of anne deppe

a LED light made of veneer image courtesy of anne deppe

a structure made from the focus material image courtesy of anne deppe

a veneer bag image courtesy of anne deppe

sporting the bag image courtesy of oliver otto

design in progress image courtesy of oliver otto

the open workshop where the designer worked on their objects image courtesy of oliver otto

sewing an object together image courtesy of oliver otto