WORKSHOP AT VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM

During on our excursion we visited the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein to prepare for our upcoming exhibition at the Vitra Schaudepot Lab. We were welcomed by Julia Beyer, team leader for workshops, education and visitor experiences, who will be our supervisor over the course of the project. 

Schaudepot

After a short introduction we were guided through the permanent exhibition of Vitra Schaudepot by Serge Mauduit, head of collection and curator of the Vitra Design Museum. The exhibition shows about 400 key pieces of modern furniture design from 1800 to today –from early bentwood pieces and modern icons like designs by Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto, to recent 3D-printed designs. The permanent collection is often complemented by small temporary exhibitions. 


Schaudepot Lab

After the guided tour Julia Beyer showed us the Schaudepot Lab. The Lab holds a material library where visitors can explore the design process of the furniture pieces: from first ideas, material samples, sketches and videos to the finished product. In addition there is also a temporary exhibition. These works are often about  experimental investigations and show the design process, similar to the current exhibition “New Material Award 2018”. The biennial award encourages artists, designers and architects to use new materials and technologies to contribute to a better and more sustainable society. 


Curator’s Tour in the Design Museum Gallery

Following the Schaudepot Lab we were guided by Viviane Stappmanns, the curator of the Vitra Design Museum Gallery, through the current exhibition “Better Nature” , showing works by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg on synthetic biology – very inspirational, as well as irritating.


Lecture by EMYL on exhibition design

Then we met Pia Hönger and Raphael Höglhammer from EMYL at the Think Tank in the office of the Vitra Campus. EMYL is a studio for interior architecture and scenography based in Basel. They planned the latest exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum “Objects of Desire. Surrealism and Design 1924 – Today”. The two of them gave us valuable insight into their work process. We received a lot of advice on room layouts, time management and strategies – valuable input to plan and build our own exhibition. 

Great thanks to Serge Mauduit, Viviane Stappmanns, Pia Hönger and Raphael Höglhammer and, of course, Julia Beyer for the inspirational insight

Vitra Design Museum

Studio EMYL

text: Farid Taher, Julia Rademacker, Hélène Fontaine