VERNER PANTON AT VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM
BACKGROUND: VISIONA 1970 - REVISITING THE FUTURE
VERNER PANTON AT VITRA
DESIGN MUSEUM
BACKGROUND: VISIONA 1970
- REVISITING THE FUTURE
February 07,2014 – June
01,2014
From 1968 to 1972, the
chemical corporation Bayer rented an excursion boat that was transformed by
well-known designers into a temporary exhibition space on the subject of
contemporary living. Held during the Cologne Furniture Fair, the forum was used
to present the latest developments in interior textiles, whereby a balanced
relationship was sought between representing various products and presenting
several furniture and textile makers. By collaborating with prominent
contemporary designers, the intention was to complement the technical
possibilities and practical uses of Bayer’s artificial fibers with aesthetic
and artistic aspects – with the designer serving as a link between manufacturer
and final consumer. Thanks to Verner Panton (»Visiona 0«, 1968 and »Visiona 2«,
1970), Joe Colombo (»Visiona 1«, 1969) and Olivier Mourgue (»Visiona 3«, 1971),
the »Visiona« exhibitions are still today considered exemplary for the
avant-garde living concepts of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They offered
designers a platform for presenting new, revolutionary ideas, promoted public
debate and the cultural importance of residential living, and provided the
industry with new inspiration. Verner Panton’s interest in new materials and
his experience in the realm of textiles formed the ideal foundation for his
pioneering designs of »Visiona 0« (1968) and »Visiona 2« (1970). He created
dreamlike spaces and space-like dreams in unusual shapes and colors that
stretched across the entire interior of the boat. While »Visiona 0« could be
described as a departure from traditional styles of living, »Visiona 2« was
entirely focused on the question of living in the world of tomorrow. It broke
the traditional understanding of space with its clear ascription of functions,
instead creating surroundings that were dedicated to well being, communication,
and relaxation. For this, Panton designed numerous design objects, including
furniture, textiles, lighting, wall and ceiling coverings that formed in highly
imaginative arrangements a series of very different spaces. As an integrative
component, he developed both a lighting concept and atmospheric sounds for the
individual spaces, like the song of a nightingale, the cry of an owl, bee
humming, cat howls, or waves. The Phantasy Landscape (also called »living
cave«) on the main deck of the »Loreley« – generally remembered as the most
impressive space of »Visiona 2« – can be considered the climax of Panton’s
creative vision. This room discarded all traditional notions of architecture:
the floors, walls, ceilings, and furniture seemed to be created from a single
cast. The windowless space lacked any connection to the outside world and
presented itself as an organic landscape, characterised by dynamic curved
shapes that seemed as though they were cut out of the material itself. The
elements in various shades of blue and red were like a multiplication of his
famous Living Towers placed after one another: the blue shades on the outside,
the red shades increasingly becoming brighter on the inside, so that the
psychedelic arrangement appeared to glow from within. While the designs of
Panton’s contemporaries often evoked associations with outer space, Panton’s
livable sculpture with its warm colors and soft textiles sought to bring the
interior life of the human being to an outer form.
http://www.design-museum.de/en/exhibitions/detailseiten/visiona.html
PHANTASY
LANDSCAPE - VISIONA 2 - IMM Köln
Möbelmesse /
Cologne Furniture Fair, 1970
© Panton Design, Basel
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PANTON CHAIR 1959 -1960
VP4 FLOWERPOT LAMP
PANTORAMA 1979
PAUL HENNIGSEN COMPETITION 1964
PANTORAMA 1979
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VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM
The Vitra Design Museum was founded in 1989 by the Vitra company and Rolf Fehlbaum, now Chairman Emeritus. Originally conceived for the purpose of displaying a private furniture collection, the museum initially produced smaller exclusive exhibitions, such as on Erich Dieckmann or the then little-known Ron Arad. Under the leadership of founding director Alexander von Vegesack, the first major internationally acclaimed exhibitions were presented in the opening decade, including retrospectives on Charles and Ray Eames, Frank Lloyd Wright and Luis Barragán, along with influential thematic exhibitions on Czech Cubism and the future of mobility. Parallel to this, the museum initiated a highly successful system of travelling exhibitions and began to develop its own product lines to help finance the programme of cultural activities. At the same time, the museum’s collection was continually expanded and an independent publishing house was established.
Alexander von Vegesack served as director of the
museum from 1989 to 2010, developing it into a leading institution for design
and architecture with a global reputation. Between 2011 and 2020, the
museum was headed by co-directors Mateo Kries and Marc
Zehntner who oversaw a significant expansion of the programme of
exhibitions and events. The Vitra Design Museum Gallery opened in 2011,
followed by Herzog & de Meuron's Vitra Schaudepot in 2016. Since 2020,
Mateo Kries is director of the Vitra Design Museum, Sabrina Handler is deputy
director and COO, Heiko Hoffmann is Head of Finance.
VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM DESIGN BY FRANK GEHRY
VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM
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PENDANT LAMP VP GLOBE 1969 – 1970
CLOVER LEAF SOFA
PHANTASY
LANSCAPE - VISIONA 2
Spiral lights
(1969, produced by Lübner)
IMM Cologne Furniture Fair, 1970 © Panton Design, Basel
SPIEGEL PUBLISHING HOUSE 1969
SPIEGEL LAMP 1969 - 1970
PHANTASY LANSCAPE - VISIONA 2
EXHIBITION KOEBESTAEVNET 1959
CONE CHAIR 1958
COPENHAGEN CIRCUS BUILDING 1984
PHANTOM CHAIR
VARNA RESTAURANT 1971
PANTO MOVE LUPO
PANTO STACK
1998
PANTO SWING 2K
PANTO SWING 1994
COMPASS LUPO
HEART CONE CHAIR 1959
COLOGNE FURNITURE FAIR 1960
WIRE CONE CHAIR 1958
VERNER
PANTON
Verner Panton, born 1926 in Gamtofte, Denmark, studied at Odense Technical College before enrolling at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen as an architecture student.
He worked from 1950-52 in the architectural firm of Arne Jacobsen, and founded an independent studio for architecture and design in 1955. His furniture designs for the firm Plus-linje attracted attention with their geometric forms. In the following years Panton created numerous designs for seating furniture and lighting.
His passion for bright colours and geometric patterns manifested itself in an extensive range of textile designs. By fusing the elements of a room—floor, walls, ceiling, furnishings, lighting, textiles, wall panels made of enamel or plastic—into a unified gesamtkunstwerk, Panton's interior installations have attained legendary status. The most famous examples are the "Visiona" ship installations for the Cologne Furniture Fair (1968 and 1970), the Spiegel publishing headquarters in Hamburg (1969) and the Varna restaurant in Aarhus (1970).
Panton's collaboration with Vitra began in the early 1960s, when the firm decided to develop what became his best-known design, the Panton Chair, which was introduced in 1967. This was also the first independently developed product by Vitra.
Verner Panton died in 1998 in Copenhagen. Vitra's re-edition of designs by Panton, as well as the retrospective of his work mounted by the Vitra Design Museum in 2000, bear witness to the special relationship between Vitra and Verner Panton.
http://www.vitra.com/en-un/corporation/designer/details/97695
