Interview with Nadja Swarovski

Salone del Mobile Milan / 2010

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The Swarovski Crystal Palace exhibition, an incubator for cutting edge design, demonstrated the merging of art, design, science and technology. Each designer’s creative expression was captured in single room installations, captivating the imagination of each visitor. The final designs were a combination of sculptural pieces, art objects, or works which had a decidedly architectural quality. The exhibition brought on board Jules Wright, founder of the The Wapping Project in London and a background in theatre, who created a mise-en-scène that brought dramatic life to the different designers’ works. The guiding theme was inspired by the idea of inspirational palaces – from Versailles with its hall of mirrors, to Japan with its Zen aesthetic, to the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. Each design was showcased in a separate room, allowing the designers the opportunity for creative expression. “Every space focused the eyes on the specific object and the environments contextualised each piece in a theatrical way,” Wright explained.

Interview with Jules Wright

Salone del Mobile Milan / 2010

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Yves Béhar combined the possibilities of technology with the inherent qualities of Swarovski crystal to create a beautiful yet surprisingly affordable lighting arrangement, which consisted of a series of deceptively simple ‘paper lanterns’ shaped like crystals, within which light was refracted from a real crystal, casting its patterns on the surface of the paper.

Interview with Yves Béhar

Salone del Mobile Milan / 2010

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Vincent van Duysen created a highly versatile glowing ‘beam’ encrusted with Swarovski crystals. The design could either be used on its own – suspended above a table for example or leant against the corner of a room, or joined together as modular elements to create dramatic architectural shapes. The elements came in three different widths – from 6cm to 16cm, and three different lengths, from 140cm to 220cm. The surface of each bar featured a ‘crust’ of randomly assorted, different sized crystals set into resin. Sandwiched between the crystal exteriors was a thin glass panel which gave the ‘beams’ their structure and rigidity while also acting as a vehicle for the LED lighting within.

Interview with Vincent van Duysen

Salone del Mobile Milan / 2010

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This installation was an interpretation of the crystals’ purest, most intrisic features: how they spark our imagination. The installation relied on the beauty of the crystals and had the magic of the Northern Lights.

Interview with Rogier van der Heide

Salone del Mobile Milan / 2010

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INFO

Date:
4/17/2010
Location:
Milan
Info:
“Swarovski Crystal Palace is Swarovski’s think tank, a platform for creative expression and experimentation with innovation and technology,” Nadja Swarovski, Vice President of International Communications at Swarovski, comments. “Our designer collaborations not only push the boundaries of the designers’ own work but also of the use of Swarovski crystal in an artistic, decorative and functional way.”

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