Transforming Vienna into a ‘city full of design’, the event hosted a captivating programme of 10 days that attracted national and international design enthusiasts as well as a broad public audience.
Vienna Design Week opened on September 30, 2010 at Vienna’s Palais Liechtenstein, hosting an opening of the show ‘Baroque Splendour and Stainless Steel’. The Liechtenstein Museum also hosted its first exhibition of contemporary design comprising works from renowned studios such as Claesson Koivisto Rune (SE), Makkink & Bey (NL) and Olgoj Chorchoj (CZ).
The festival saw the participation of renowned speakers at ‘Vienna Design Week Talks’ such as Stefan Sagmeister, Gijs Bakker, Inga Sempé and Konstantin Grcic.The festival classics, the ‘Passionswege’ – a curated design course through
Vienna – connected national and international designers with traditional local businesses.
The festival format ‘Vienna Design Week Carte Blanche’ offered young designers a free space to showcase their ideas, which included ‘LacesLamp’ by Swiss designer Antoinette Bader; opening of a temporary ‘Heuriger’, a traditional Viennese wine pub by Austrian architects bindermayer; development of new platforms for adventurous experts by the Institute of Design Research Vienna; and transformation of a construction site container into a cosy public meeting place by Dutch designers Rikkert Paauw and Jet van Zwieten.
The ‘Vienna Design Week Laboratory’ curated by Neigungsgruppe Design with Austrian graphic designer Erwin K. Bauer was a notable event at the festival. ‘Neigungsgruppe Design’ explains that the teams of ‘Kueng Caputo’ and Philippe Malouin as well as ‘Merz und Hess’ and ‘Wagner/Wipplinger’ have managed to depict the different processes behind graphic design and product design in a descriptive and vivid way, from the first idea to the final product.
Public space was important in 2010 festival, with the public as active participants. Milan-based collective esterni invited people to commonly build ‘everybody’s bench’, while IKEA, which was festival partner for the first time in 2010, held public competitions. Other international enterprises who held invited competitions were Rado and Nespresso. The festival also hosted exhibition openings such as ‘2000-2010. Design in Vienna’ at the Wien Museum.
Few exhibitions opened during Vienna Design Week 2010 are still accessible such as ak7, quartier21/Museumsquartier: The Art of Design (through 21 November 2010); designforum: Take risks, solve problems. The Dyson design process (through 22 December 2010); Hofmobiliendepot: Aqua Mobile (through 23 January 2011); Liechtenstein Museum: Baroque Splendour and Stainless Steel (through 9 November 2010); MAK: DESIGN CRIMINALS. Or a New Joy into the World (through 14 November 2010); WAGNER: WERK Museum Postsparkasse: Finnish Glass Design (through 13 November 2010); and WIEN MUSEUM: 2000-2010. Design in Vienna (through 9 January 2011).
Vienna Design Week 2010 also witnessed cooperation between designers and entrepreneurs resulting in several commissions – products produced during the festival finding great response with buyers; and bringing young, design aware visitors to the city and contributing to the city’s tourism.
Vienna Design Week 2011 will be held from September 29 to October 9, celebrating its fifth anniversary.
