03 07 2009
'Personal Shopper'
We were invited by Messe Frankfurt to select 80 products from the entire Ambiente show in February around which we designed an exhibition for Tendence. This installation and the objects selected reflect a view of design according to a personality. Our 'personal shopper' is Bobo.
In the world of Parisian fashion, the term 'Le Bobo' (short for Bourgeois Bohème), which also had political connotations, was applied to "typically discerning customers who are left wing and left bank"; or, put another way, "that subset of thirty- or forty-something-year-olds who don't allow their socialist leanings to interfere with an enjoyment of material pleasures". Les Bobos are creative and imaginative about how they shape their material environments and their sense of 'Quality' transends and defies conventional boundaries and hierarchies. "Le Bobo" is someone who enjoys and perceives qualities in both extremes from the low cost mass-produced and playful to fine crafted luxury items.
During the long walk over three days that it took to find 80 products for this show, we were looking for 'Quality' in the eyes of 'Le Bobo'. We scanned the stands looking for materiality, beautiful making, graphic impact, cultural significance, some intrinsic quality that made us desire an object and select it for the show. This can be seen between Halls 5.1 and 6.1
28 10 2008
02 10 2008
'Myth and Material' opens in New York
Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien's installation Myth and Material which Silvera presented in Paris for Designer's Days, starts travelling and goes to America. On this occasion, Doshi Levien present all their products designed for Moroso, giving the exhibition space a very exotic feel with My Beautiful Backside sofas, Principessa and Charpoy daybeds, sparkling mirrors and kaleidoscopic Rangoli carpets.Through an irreverent, spontaneous use of colours and materials, Doshi Levien's installation explores and describes the influence that Indian culture has on their designs. Myth and Material looks at the many aspects of India's multilayered modern culture and emphasises, in a very natural way, how opposites coexist harmoniously: sensuousness with the spiritual and austere; functionality with creativity and imagination.
