uli marchsteiner

A WAY BEYOND CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

Is is the name of a publication that recently has been published by Robert Punkenhofer in Folio Verlag and produced by the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber in Vienna. The book analyses the situation of creative industries, particulary in Austria but also showing a global perspective by inviting designers, architects, musicians as well as scientific and politicians of all five continents. Some of the the participants are quite famous names as Alberto Alessi, Ben van Berkel, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Karim Rashid or Ferran Adriá. This publication offers an insight into creative business in Austria and around the globe, bringing together know-how and networks of relevant contacts.

BARCELOOOONAAA!

The DESIGNTRANSFER Gallery, part of the UdK (Universität der Künste) in Berlin organized recently two lectures about the design aspects of Barcelona in his design-historical issue as well as in contemporary positions. The first lecture by Dr.Viviana Narotzky was entitled with "Designing Barcelona". The second speech by Uli Marchsteiner was named "Self-Made Barcelona: Design and craft in hard times"

WIND STREETLIGHT

We proudly present at the Light & Building Fair in Frankfurt a new lighting system in LED technology for public areas called WIND produced by TROLL. It's made of aluminum cast with a slightly curved form, which has inside 50 LED lamps and his design with asymmetric reflectors and a optical diffuser conceives a perfect uniform luminosity. The double coated silicon closures gives you an elevated water proof level (IP66).

The subtile and linear design of the WIND light permits a perfect integration in diverse urban spaces and avoids the escaping of light-flow on the upper side of the lamp. WIND has a double efficiency grace to a specially developed electronic supply to guarantee high energetic savings (95%). This means that for example with 1000 installed WIND lamps we could avoid the emission of about 190.000kg CO2, reducing the climatic impact of energy consume, saving about 400.000 kw/h a year.

FUSTA FURNITURE

By commission of Artesanía Catalonia and with the local town council we are initiating collaboration with 10 woodcraftmen of Sant Hilari Sacalm (Catalonia, Spain). Inside the project OFICIS SINGULARS promoted by Artesanía Catalonia and funded by the Generalitat of Catalonia we are in charge to design a collection of urban furniture for green zones, parks, gardens and terraces. The whole work in progress will be documented and an exhibition at the end of the project will present the pieces to a wide public, especially to companies dedicated to the distribution and sale of products of this sector.

EARLY PROJECTS

We are gradually expanding our content on this webpage and in this sense we added some relevant projects mostly of them dated before 1995. Perhaps in some works you can notice the passage of time more than in others, but in any case they still have yet sufficient force for to be shown. You will find all of them under the menu/projects in a chronological order that means that they are situated quite at the end of the list. To facilitate your visit we add here a list direct links to each project:

Café Macaya, 1994
L'Art en la Pell, 1993
Cada Cadáver (Un juego para tres), 1993
Altera Utilitate, 1993
Stand AG, 1992

THE WORLD OF CRAFT

Once again ARTESANIA CATALUNYA asked me to commission an exhibition of twenty craftsmen at the CONSTRUMAT fair in Barcelona. Though we repeat the montage of the previous edition, this year there is almost 50% of new participants at the show. My work consists in selecting the contents that each of the participants is going to present. Actually I give a personal visit to each of their workshops, which are scattered all over Catalonia. Thus I have started to travel from north to south just to see the way they actually do their craft techniques. In the first stage I visited a few ceramists, who among other things make some beautiful gutters in terracotta, as they were done in former times and as nowadays it turns to be used for rehabilitations of rustic estates. Here I publish some images of this visit besides a demo video of the craft process.

GALA DE AUSTRIA

We are proud to publish images from the GALA DE AUSTRIA, a big charity event, organized on 15th of November 2008 at the Palau Nacional in Barcelona. Design and direction of the set-up was done by Uli Marchsteiner.
If you want to know more about this follow this link!

ONLINE CUTLERY: NEW PIECES FOR SERVING!

The company Comas & Partners has presented his new cutlery collections at HOSTELCO, an important fair for restaurant & hotel suppliers in Barcelona. Christophe Mathieu, as usual, created the fair-stand in a brilliant white appearance. In first row was the ONLINE cutlery designed by Uli Marchsteiner. The complete collection was presented including the new designed pieces for serving. As well a new, very extensive catalogue of the whole collections was presented for hostelry clients as well as for domestic use.

Cuberter�a Online / Piezas a servir

CONGRESS LIQUID SKY II

On September 8 there were celebrated the congress LIQUID SKY – Horizons of Architecture and the Design in the 21st Century in the Conference hall of the Universal EXPO in Saragossa. In spite of the difficulties of entering into the EXPO area with large queues of public in the early morning, approximately 80 registered persons were present at the congress.

The interventions were grouped in two areas: Architecture / Urban Landscape and Product Design / Experimental concepts. In the first section, after an interesting historical introduction by Dietmar Steiner, the director of the Centre of Architecture in Vienna, Marta Malé-Almany treated of the topic of software to create architecture from the project up to his execution by means of systems of numerical control or rapid prototyping. The need to collaborate between architects, biologists, mathematicians, sociologists etc. was emphasized in Sandra Manninger's speech of SPAN Architects of Vienna. Edouard Cabay of CLOUD 9 of Enric Ruiz-Geli presented the project and process of accomplishment of the “Pavilion of the Thirst” in the same enclosure of the Expo of Saragossa.

In the second section of the congress the concept "liquid" was focused as synonymous of flexibility and industrial complexity. Christian Schwamkrug, head of design department at PORSCHE DESIGN in Austria, showed the wide field of products that developed by his offices. Ana Mir of EMILIANA in Barcelona was standing out for her special way of creating objects related to the human body and its own fluids.
Finally Robert Stadler of RADIDESIGNERS in Paris spoke about his activity so much in the field of the industrial design (collection of domestic appliances for Moulinex) as in projects related to artistic facilities and objects in limited series.

The public was attentive until the end of the conferences followed by some questions to the referees of the congress. Robert Punkenhofer, commissioner of the Austrian Pavilion at the EXPO Saragossa invited after ending all the participants of the congress to take a farewell cocktail at his pavilion.

LIQUID SKY CONGRESS

The presence of water and its fluid forms in architecture and design is the topic of this congress. Its free and changing nature serves as a metaphor to define the new creative philosophies facing the challenges of the future. In this congress and within the framework of the Expo Zaragoza 2008, six “liquid” strategies will be presented by six outstanding professionals in the fields of architecture and Industrial Design who come from Austria and Spain. It’s a unique opportunity to learn about the most advanced currents!

This congress will be held on the 8th of September 2008 in the Palacio de Congresos of the EXPO Zaragoza and is addressed to professionals and enthusiasts of architecture and contemporary design. It will be an encounter with outstanding architects and designers from Austria and Spain who will expound their creative philosophies through their most relevant works.

Speakers:
Dietmar Steiner (Architekturzentrum Wien, A):
Marta Malé-Alemany (ReD, E):
Sandra Manninger (SPAN Architects, A):
Enric Ruiz–Geli (Cloud 9, E):
Peter Noever (Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Wien, A):
Christian Schwamkrug (Porsche Design Studio, A/D):
Ana Mir (Emiliana, E):
Robert Stadler (Radidesigners, A/F)

Idea: Dr. Robert Punkenhofer
Curator: Mag. Uli Marchsteiner
Project Direction: Expo Office Austria
Collaborating organization: ADI FAD

Day: 08/09/2008
Venue: Expo Universal de Zaragoza (Palacio de Congresos)
Free entry - Limited seating
Registration: www.adifad.org/liquidsky
or send e-mail to inscripcion@adifad.org
Information: +34 93 443 75 20 (Gisela)

THE UTILITY OF EMPTINESS ? PHOTOSHOOTING

The photographer Pep Herrero has done a very perfect photo–documentation on the exhibition-setup. It wasn’t really an easy job to do, as all the walls and roof were painted black. Nevertheless he achieved a very well representation of the different exhibition ambits. Here to you some samples of his work, but if you want to see more, you can go directly to the project pages clicking on this link.

THE UTILITY OF EMPTINESS ON ?YOUTUBE?

A video about the exhibition "The Utility of Emptiness", commissioned and designed by Uli Marchsteiner and to visit until 4th of May 2008 at the Museo de las Artes Decorativas in Barcelona, is published now on YouTube. Some days ago a “bootleg” version of an unknown visitor already had appeared. But now we present you the “Director’s Cut”, a walk through the whole exhibition from the beginning to the end, enriched with psychedelic effects and music.

TSI AGAIN AT 'ENSE�A 2008'

This is a re-design of the last year. Repetitive? Yes, but as well eco-friendly! To use a fair-stand set-up two times makes you spare as well money than garbage. All this huge volume of material what is generated by trade-fairs is incredibly crazy. That's why we supported this idea and accepted to re-use the displays of last year to adapt them to the contents of this year. As well we could improve some details, which make the stand more comfortable and communicative.

ONLINE AT THE 'AMBIENTE'

From 8th to 12th of February the company Comas & Partners presented the ONLINE Cutlery Collection, designed by Uli Marchsteiner at the Ambiente Fair in Frankfurt, Germany. The spectacular fair-stand designed by Christophe Mathieu showed an amusing photomontage with the designers and the director of the company like the "incredible shrinking man" gliding down on a fork's handle or sleeping inside the concavity of a spoon.

THE UTILITY OF EMPTINESS: OPENING!

We are just finishing the set-ups and shall open the exhibition on Thursday, 28th of February 2008 at 19.30. Museu de les Arts Decoratives, Palau Reial de Pedralbes, Av. Diagonal, 686, Barcelona.
On the same day there will be published a book entiteled The Utility of Emptiness, which contains an interesting diversity of writings about the topic. The book will be distributed by ActarD and exists in three versions: catalan, spanish and english version. The publication includes texts by Uli Marchsteiner, curator of the exhibition and editor of this publication, who gives a general approach about The Utility of Emptiness. Gillo Dorfles, one of the most important theoreticians on the art and architecture of the twentieth century, provides some important reflections on Mass (and Void) in Architecture. Albert Ribas deals with horror vacui in his Brief History of the Concept of Emptiness. Anthony VidlerA dark space in the work "House" by the British sculptress Rachel Whiteread. approaches the concept of Daniel Giralt-Miracle, in his article The Reflective Void thereupon looks at the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and his unique sculptural techniques, based on negatives of real people and objects. There are then some valuable contributions by Rachel Delphia on design adapted to the human body, which include the remarkable case of Thomas Lamb and his ergonomic handles. Gerd Siekmann offers a view of the organic work of Luigi Colani and Günter Beltzig in Germany in the nineteen-seventies. Lastly, Isabel Campi analyses the relationship between the reproductive technique of the negative mould and its aesthetic and formal potential, which have been highly influential in the history of industrial design.
You can download the index of the book + introduction by Uli Marchsteiner by the following link!

GAUDI CONCEPT

A new collection of spectacle-frames inspired by the famous Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí was presented last week by the company OPTIM. At the Artchimboldi–Space in Barcelona Uli Marchsteiner gave the key lecture about “Gaudí and his influence on contemporary design. A number of journalists and people from this branch of trade assisted at this presentation.

THE UTILITY OF EMPTINESS

From 28th of February until 4th of May 2008 this exhibition, curated and designed by Uli Marchsteiner will be shown at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Barcelona.
The project seems on the first glance a paradox: there will be shown things you neither can see nor hear: emptyness, silence, pause, space and no-materia. Nevertheless all of them are quite necessary elements in our life: without silence we could'nt listen to speech or music, without emptiness we could'nt live in our houses, without space we even could be able to read this text!
"The utility of emptiness" shows the interest and importance of emptyness by a selection of about 130 objects – from the fields of fine arts, architecture, design, natural ciences and industrial engineering.

The circuit of the exhibition is divided in five ambits:

1.The Discovery of Emptiness
2. Positive/Negative Experience
3. Moulding Memory/Mimesis Naturalis
4.Inverted Anatomies
5. Models and Matrix

As we know it is the first time that an exhibition about this topic is to be shown and in this sense we hope that we can contribute to a better knowledge about something (or nothing?) omnipresent in our life as it is doubtlessly: the utility of emptiness.

GABRIEL LLUELLES, INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER

We just opened last week an exhibition in the FAD (Fostering Arts and Design) of Barcelona about a silent pioneer or our profession–Gabriel Lluelles. The show organized by our industrial designer association ADI-FAD runs from 16 to 29th of january 2008 and shows a collection of the 20 best and emblematic products designed by Gabriel Lluelles and loaned from the prestigious Collection Andrés Alfaro-Hofmann, Valencia. We got support as well from the Museum of Decorative Arts of Barcelona.
Probably most of you dont know the name of this spanish designer, but a lot of people can recognize these mixer or these hairdryer, which formed part of your life, especially if you lived from the sixties to the eighties in Spain. For an industrial designer it is a great honour when the name of his product changes into a name of a whole producttype as it happened in Spain with the "Minipimer".

DESIGN KOREA 2007

Our association of Spanish Industrialdesigners ADI-FAD and me as their president, was invited to participate at the DESIGN KOREA 2007 fair, organized by the Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP). In a huge convention center in Seoul, called COEX we exposed our DELTA prices 2005 and 2007 among other prestigious Design Awards like the German RED DOT and IF AWARD, the American IDSA, the French OBSERVEUR DU DESIGN, the Chinese RED-STAR AWARD, the Austrian ADOLF LOOS PREIS and many other well-known awards.

After a long flight and the first jet-lag afternoon, they called us next day for an opening ceremony, organized in the way how they do it there. A group of corean percussionists, traditionally dressed up, made the start. After that, they called us, each of the guests, to take position in front of a colourfull ribbon and to put on a pair of white gloves. They gave each one of us golden scissors for to cut the ribbon by comando – one, two, three. A cloud of flashes of the journalists followed us during the official visit of the honorable corean minister.

Later on, I was part of a jury panel for the so called LEGACY FOR THE FUTURE award. We had to choose among those internationaly awarded products, divided into three sections: the Human Comfort –, the Eco-Friendly – and the Cultural Identity Design Award. The jury panel was separeted in three groups. I was in the section for the “Cultural Identity Design Award” together with Lee Soon-In, professor of Hongik University of Korea and Zhang Jia, an executive editor of a Design Magazine from Beijing. At the end we gave the award to a chec company called ?eský porcelán for a porcellain service designed by Jirí Pelcl, who gave an attractive contemporary aspect to a traditional bohemian tecnique.

At the end we had a protocolary dinner, where I had to announce the decision of our jury in public. We ended up with a group of the jury and friends at the Sky-Bar on the 30rd floor of the Intercontinental Hotel, nine floors over the room I stayed those four days in Seoul. Among others I was presented to the president and CTO of LG Electronics, Mr.Dr. Hee-Gook Lee. LG (what means the Laughing Ghost, simbolized in his logo) is a powerful corean global-player and industry-giant, producing nearly everything: from elevators to textiles. One of their local brands of electric-appliances is named DIOS, which means “God” in spanish lenguage and maybe would create in Spain some scepticism.

SERIAL INDIVIDUALITY: INDUSTRIAL DESIGN WITH CRAFTS

In the recently appeared Butlletí of september/october 2007, published by Artesanía Catalunya, an institution created by Generalitat of Catalonia, you may find a new article from Uli Marchsteiner. It deals about the rising tendency in the field of industrial design of the "individualization" of products. Products designed to satisfy those consumer with needs to define their social image with individually shaped products. This text, written in catalan you can download in a PDF document.

THIS WEEK: DELTA DESIGN AWARDS 2007

Thursday, 8th of November is the great day, where those Spanish Design Awards with the large tradition and prestige of 46 years will be given to the best product in Spain this year again. The selected and awarded products will be shown at the FAD Exhibition-hall from 9th to 27th of november 2007. This year the Delta Award has opened his Call-for-products to all international companies and designers distributing his products in Spain. The participation was notably higher than in anterior editions. The future of the Delta Awards will go into a mayor internationalization in the same way than the ADI-FAD will professionalize his organisation structures. The association is actually presided by Uli Marchsteiner together with an active and energy-rich director´s board. Beside the exhibition to visit during three weeks, a lot of activities related with products and Delta award will be released during this time. The whole activity programme will be published soon. Come back!

STAND CONSTRUMAT '07 Fresh images!

Finally we can present you the photographs of the fair-stand we did for Artesania Catalunya at the Construmat 07. You find them unde menu projects or directly by the following link.

PRO CARTON Interview

As current president of ADI-FAD (Association of Industrial Designers in Spain) together with my team, we are organizing with PRO CARTON España (Association of European Cartonboard and Carton Manufacturers) a competition for young product designers. The results of this call for project, which is held since already eight years, are always very interesting and innovative. They consist not only in new proposals of packaging design, as well there is a special cathegory for new aplications of cardboard. In the last edition of the PRO CARTON newsletter there is an interview, where they asked me about my opinion on the use of this well-known but always suggestive material.

EQUALLY_DIFFERENT Interview

On the radioprogram LEPORELLO on 28th of June 2007 an interview with Uli Marchsteiner was released, where he speaks about the current exhibition GLEICH UND DOCH VERSCHIEDEN in Vienna.

EQUALLY_DIFFERENT in Vienna

On 26th of June 2007 we opened this travelling exhibition about the collection of everyday life objects from 15 countries of five continents. During a travel of nearly five months, together with the artist and photographer Leo Schatzl, we gathered together about 1200 artefacts and 15.000 digital photographs. After the big exhibition in summer of 2004, co-produced by the Forum de las Culturas and the FAD (Fomento de Artes y Diseño), we configured a more compact and mobile exhibition, which can be visited actually in Vienna until 16th of September 2007:

designforum, quartier 21
Museumsplatz 1/Hof 7
A-1070 Wien

CAMPEONES, CADA DIA in Zaragoza

At the Arts and Crafts Center of Aragon, an old abattoir, and as one of the main events of the "3rd Designer's meeting in Zaragoza" we will show this amusing traveling exhibition, which I did together with the genial Juanjo Saez, produced by ADI-FAD Barcelona. The exhibition will open on 18th of May until 3rd of June 2007

MILANO

From 18th to 21 of April I stayed at the Saloni Internazionale de Mobili. A neverending ocean of design – amazing as well as fatiguing. Not only the fair itself, but also and especially those activities on design, hold in a whole quarter of town called Via Tortona. My eyes were as well impressed as my feet. You have to see for to believe how many proposals and products you find during just four days. Maybe the part of bad-design of this event is the annoying service of the Milano City itself: you get very tired as well by all those ticketmachines out of order, an unexisting functional information design and this too strictly hours for lunch or dinner at Milano's Restaurants. Milano is not the city that never sleeps, but a city full of vanity and convictions of his leadership in design. In any case I would like to point out the really impressive arquitecture of the new Milano Fair by Massimiliano Fuksas. Unless the big crowd of visitors I found easily and my way, enjoying this amazing confortable space, rarely to find in those huge fair-arquitectures.

BARCELONA GLOCAL
Download this new article of mine published recently in the EXPERIMENTA magazine.

Revista EXPERIMENTA N�57

VIDEO EXHIBITION AT GALERIA H2O
I've just published a small video, showing those drawers full with projects from 1995 to 2005.

CAMPEONES CADA DIA in Madrid!
From 23th of january to 22 of february 2007 the exhibition CAMPEONES CADA DIA Los Premios Delta al Mejor Diseño en España will be shown at the Oficina de Marcas y Patentes (OEPM) in Madrid. For more information have a look at projects/exhibitions of this website.

Drawings by Juanjo S�ez

YOUTUBE Premiere

We have published a video at YouTube.com. A serie of interviews with me on Austrian TV Channel. It's in German without subtitles. But the images are worth for!

PREMIOS DELTA 2007 INTERNACIONALES
Since few months I am president of ADI-FAD (the spanish association of industrial designers) and we are actually working on an important project. We want to bring the famous Delta Awards to an international level. It is time for our companies and designers to compete with the globalized reality. We think that doing so, we will help to promote our companies as well as designers, but also we think that there should be a qualitative filter for products coming from other countries. Our target is to convert the Delta Awards to the most famous prices of spanish speaking countries as well as to situate them on a level like the "Red Dot Award" or the "If awards" in Germany.

ONLINE cutlery: New Pack!
Our cutlery ONLINE for Comas Industries will be available in this packs.
(Packaging: Nathalie Garcia, Foto: Alexis Taulé)

Cutlery ONLINE Packaging

PEEDOM's
Estamos actualmente con un proyecto de investigación para la empresa TAURUS. Alumnos del Istituto Europeo del Design estan conmigo desarollando una familia de pequeños electrodomesticos. Hasta ahora tuvimos una conferencia inaugural de Ramon Benedito, vinieron los diseñadores internos de Taurus y visitabamos la colección de electro-domesticos históricos de Andrés Alfaro Hofmann.

Student with talent
That today's young designers don't know how to draw is not always true. Recently I found in FB this portrait, drawn by a student during my class at the EINA School of Design. I think she made a quite good job.

Good Vento
Very soon we will publish our LED Streetlamp produced by TROLL. It's a product with an amazing aspect of dynamic lightness which can be installed on column or on the wall. It's easy to install and thanks to his high-tech electronically circuit it offers a real long life expectation and an important energy reduction. We are very proud about the VENTO streetlamp, which soon you will see on the market.

Trafficlights in Barcelona
In the last few years the lightning system of Barcelona's trafficlights was changed from bulbs to LED tecnology. What firstly seemed a state of the art tecnology with large duration and less consumption of energy has changed to a nightmare. Let's hope that the new lights of Barcelona, coming from a recently hold design competition, will use a more time-effective lightning system!

Paper planes Cul�
Yesterday I saw the match between FC Barcelona and Sevilla live at the stadion! It's about fifteen years that I didn't stay at the Camp Nou. With about 60.000 spectators and an illuminated Barça team I had really a good time. A curious thing I observed were those paper planes, which were thrown from the stands. Some of them really reached the football field. Congratulations to all those talented designers of Barça's blue-granate paper planes even if they were in white ! (color of Real Madrid)

Duct tape

Recently, the seat of my bike has started to crack and as an effective remedy I repaired it with the classic American DUCT TAPE. This tape was invented in 1942, like so many things for the American army. It is based on a water resistant rubber adhesive mounted on a very strong silver gray fabric. This gray ribbon has become famous by the NASA spaceflights, especially in the case of the lunar module of Apollo 13 when repairing his CO2 scrubbers; the tape has really saved the lives of astronauts.
The DUCT TAPE actually has become a kind of cult for young designers such as Jason Miller's Duct Tape Lounge Chairs, where the aesthetics of repair acquires an aesthetic value. Maybe this could be an interesting topic for an exhibition!

About Jason Miller's Duct Tape Chair

At home with your favourite tyrant
I'm not sure to recommend you this book, but it is certainly one of these curiosities that thrills me: Peter York's "Dictator's Homes", published by Atlantic Books in 2005. Inside of it you can have a look on the monumental bathrooms of Ceausescu or Saddam Hussein, as well you may see some sofa corners of Franco and Idi Amin, the famous dressing room of Imelda Marcos and the megalomania interiors of Hitler, Stalin or Mussolini. But also you will find the Christmas tree of dictator Manuel Noriega (he was named "the pineapple face" of Panama) or Slobodan Milosevic's strangely elegant mansion. But the book is really worth for the photographs, more than the other content: the text has a Paparazzi cynicism that I do not appreciate. Casually these recent days, I received a present for my birthday that goes quite in the same line: a collection of playing cards with the worst figures of the 20th century history.

Jason King

These days I went back to see some episodes of a particular TV series of the seventies. Peter Wyngarde alias Jason King is the leading character of this British spin-off production of the former series "Department S". Jason is a dandyish writer/detective involved with criminal cases related to (cold war) spies or strange figures of 70´s high-society ambient. But for me, with my 10 years at these times, it was not so much the plot of the episodes but the character of Jason King by itself, what impressed me: always carrying a very extravagant and stylish outfit, especially the way how he winded the cuffs of his shirt. Jason King cultivated the image of an eccentric playboy – a "womanizer" flirting in each episode with one or several young pretty girls, sprawling and hanging out on a elegant divan, sipping French champagne with juicy strawberries. (I imitated Jason, although without girl, drinking sparkling apple-juice and the strawberries from the orchard of my grandpa). His pose and his way of making jokes also gave him this air of a "pimp" as actually represented in some videos of the US rapper Snoop Dogg. Maybe "Jason King" episodes will never be a reference of high quality but Jason King with his "pornstache" was one of my first aesthetic referents and for this I would like to dedicate herby this homage.

Interesting blog about Jason King (spanish)

Icons of a new generation
What's that? A kind of a box installed on an urban pole and covered with a graffiti. Some electrical device for lighting: anonyms, gray, dirty. The truth is that this object was discovered by my thirteen years old daughter: Look, she said delighted, pointing with his fingers on the buttons, the screen until even the proportions of the box: a GameBoy!

House of a Serbian Princess
These days I stayed in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, which is without a doubt a meeting point between western and eastern cultures. Overthere, as well Turks (Ottoman Empire) as Austrians (Habsburger Empire) left their architectonical footprints. An interesting building in this context of "East meets West" is the Residence (Konac) of Princess Ljubica Obrenovic, constructed in 1831. His architectural composition is called "balcanic style"": a building two floors high with a rectangular exterior form but all spaces inside have square formats. Part of the building is a Turkish bathroom (Hamam) with a typical cupola with small glass holes, creating a smooth and magical twilight illumination. The most surprising is certainly the furnishing of the Princess residence: one part of the rooms are furnished in "turkish-balkanic" style with those huge sofas all along the walls or in a circular form, always with a splendid ornamental carpet on the ground together with those small and tiny oriental coffee-tables. The other part of the rooms is composed with furniture of the Austrian "Biedermeier".

S�nar, I can't hear you!
The last time I went to this legendary festival was about five years ago. I am not a great expert, but this year, as less on Sónar by Day on Saturday, I was really disappointed. As I read in a newspaper, it seemed more to be a school's out party than an event of "advanced music". The musical program was weak and with few acts. The audience was as varied as like the low–cost clothes of H&M. But a lot of merchandising products was offered, as a T-Shirt for 30 Euros with the logo of one of the big sponsors – Adidas. But the "Best of Sónar" CD, which they sold years ago has disappeared. In between all this "mainstreamisation", I found those Rucksack–Men, doing his itinerant trade with Budweiser beer. Sónar, quo vadis?

Horseball
This weekend I stayed in Olot and we went to see a match of Horseball. It's a game that invented some autochthonous tribes in Mongolia, who ride horses with such a habit and control as we probably can drive a car. For the ball they use the head of a sheep and the game is played between two teams – likely as football, basketball or polo. The players of Horseball, instead of the sheep's head use a football attached with a construction of handles, which enables to grip for the ball when one of the players makes a really acrobatic movement with his body to pick it up.

Equally_Different at the 'Architekturforum Linz'
On 27th of June we shall open for another time this exhibition, which was shown already at a lot of venues. With Linz I have a very special relationship, because it's the place where I studied and graduated in 1984. The year of Orwell. It was at the "Hochschule für Gestaltung", which, at less during my time there, was a place of rigorous avant-garde. The exhibition will be shown at the Architects Association of Upper Austria (Afo) until 16th of August 2008. I'll be there for the opening event, to find hopefully a lot of old friends, to visit some tavern or to eat some sausages at those typical snackstalls . For all they don’t know: Linz is the city with the highest number of sausage-huts in the world!

Toulouse, city in space
During these days of May, we went to visit that French city in the department of Haute Garonne, about 100km in the north of the Pyrenees. It's a comfortable and luminous town, with buildings in warm red colours, made with air-dried bricks. The city that was first roman urbe than a middle-age ecclesiastic centre nowadays is a leading city in Aerospace-industry. In Toulouse they are actually building the Airbus 380, the biggest civilian airplane in the world.
With my daughter we went to the Cité de l'Espace where we visited the real MIR space-lab, installed in this thematic park beside the Ariane 5, a reproduction of the European space shuttle.
In an Imax movie theatre inside the park, we saw a film about the actual ISS space-lab. With those 3D spectacles you could see yourself as an astronaut working outside the space-lab with the planet earth spinning under your feet. All this in 3D...really amazing!
But what really seemed horrible to me were the interiors of the ISS. All around cables, technology, computer-units, displays and machines...illuminated by a cold and impersonal fluorescent lightning. Each astronaut has narrow corner for his personal "needs" with pictures of his family or a small booklet floating there...I can't imagine to stay there for months. Those spaces seem really inhuman and made just by engineer's brain. Poor astronauts, who have to live like in the interior of a highly complicated electronic appliance. Are there no interior designers, who could improve quality of life for these space pioneers? Maybe man is not made to live without gravity, but he is lesser made to live in those tubes of unhappy and depressive technology. Hopefully those futuristic spaces of Star Trek or Kubrick's 2001 soon would be a reality!

Equally_Different at the 'Triennale di Milano'
During the Salone de Milano 2008, the Triennale di Milano shows as part of the exhibition Ceramic Tiles of Italy_Architectural Food (curator:Aldo Colonetti) objects related to food-culture coming from the Equally_Different Collection created by Uli Marchsteiner and produced in 2004 by the FAD (Foment de les Arts y el Disseny) in Barcelona.

Homage to the 'Audio-Cassette'
Last week I received a technological wonder of the past: a "tape-deck" Marantz 2020 in super-slim size, because the cartridge enters horizontally and not vertically as the major part of this machines. It has front cover that opens with a early "touch screen" on the right upper corner–pure magic! The design of all buttons is simple and elegant.
The Audio-Cassette appeared in the early 70's and was a miniaturisation of the 4-Track system with quite bulky tapes. The use of Audio-Cassette was especially in the car (that's why we still remember this dubious offers of music-cassettes at the Spanish gas-stations). But his big impact was the possibility to record music and voice for your own. When I was 14, my godfather gave me my first Radio-Cassette Player. I was dedicated during years to record my favourite music from the radio or from vinyl records. As well I designed my own covers for the cassette and during my time as musician and guitar-player we made some nice demo-tapes, which never were sent to anybody.
Today even the vinyl records have turned back, nobody pays much attention to the audio-cassette, they seem to rest a bit shabby. Obviously the major part of those cassettes from former time don't sounds as well as the vinyl-records, but on the other side with this tape-deck I bought recently I can listen to this "historic" and personal recordings, interviews or voices of my youth... pure nostalgia, of course.

At Gij�n
Last week I was invited to the Gijón, Asturias, on the Atlantic cost in the northern part of Spain. I went there to be jury member of a design competition organized by LABORAL – Centre for Arts and Industrial Creation.
Just arriving I was amazed by the huge amount of Eucalyptus trees in the lovely green countryside of Asturias. My taxi-driver told me, that the wood of eucalyptus is used for the construction of tunnels at the coalmines of Asturias. If the earth over the tunnel makes any move, the eucalyptus wood would makes instantly a harsh noise – so it’s a good alarm system.
Another interesting detail are those reliefs you can find on all zebra crossings in Gijón. This ornament helps the pedestrian not to glide on the white surface when it’s raining. A good example for anonymous design as well as for a functional ornament.

Elections
From my friends of Transportsciberians.net I received lastly this picture by Txema Salvans, a very interesting young documentary-photographer. It's the kind of reincarnation of a Spanish stereotype, but sometimes reality is winning the most typical clichés. As the image is quite small I describe you what you can read on the paper sheet: Clear ideas–PP (Popular Party): Big Central Meeting with Mariano Rajoy!

Gourmet Bathing
At the CEVISAMA Fair in Valencia I had the pleasure to present a lecture held by Leonard Koren, an American architect and writer of books like “Undesigning the Bath”, “Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers” and others highly recommendable publications. Mr.Koren has a very critical with the ignorance of contemporary architects and interior-designers, when they design a bathroom . After his opinion, it is not enough to create a only functional “humid area” easy to clean, but it is necessary to get conscious that the culture of bathing is much more related to psychological and mental topics: for example the aspects of relaxing, to find your physical self, to enjoy your senses, to forget your everyday problems, etc. As examples he showed images from traditional Japanese bathrooms, from the Arabian “Hamam” or the finish “Sauna”.

Jesus Switch
Design and religion could be an interesting topic actually. Useful objects and religious symbology – a formule to define kitsch, cursi or camp? From Belgrade I got this image of a light-switch.

The couple of the year
During my las visit at my hometown Schärding I found this publicity campaign from a local butcher: A pair of Frankfurter sausages as the couple of the year (in German "pair" and "couple" is the same word!). No comment, but certainly in postmodern times as ours this message is not free of irony and social criticisme. So much other "sausage couples" are on the frontcovers of newspapers and magazines, in this case I prefer this real and modest "couple of Frankfurts"! Beside this I would like to wish you a better new year 2008 to everybody!

Korean food
During a night-trip in Seoul I foud myself in a huge market with street-cooks. An impressive world of colours and perfumes, enormous cooking pots and boiled leg of porks. A well-known speciality of corean kitchen is “Kimchi”, a chinese cabbage fermented in a liquid of vinegar and spicy red chilli. Another curious detail is the fact that they use commonly metal sticks in stainless steel for eating and not in laquered wood as normally known. Corean people, as all asian cultures, love to eat at any time, having a joyfull coversation in a group of people.

Advertising Pillar
An interesting element I found in Seoul, Korea is this colorful advertising pillar, which is inflated with air and illuminated from the inside. It may be used for efimeral signs, advertising campaigns and others. It’s maybe due to the discipline and civic behaviour of the Coreans that it works without vandalistic problems. Neither at the Underground areas nor in the streets of Seoul I found any graffities or destroyed urban furniture.

Gyeongbokgung
The King’s Palace Gyeongbokgung of the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910) was built in Gaesong, former city of Seoul, Corea in 1394. The architectural style is obviously influenced by chinese confucionism. The palace was destroyed for the first time during the japanese occupation between 1592–1598. His first reconstruction was made in 1867 under King Daewon-gun. In 1911 Japanese returned to invade Corea, killed Queen Myeongseong and destroyed for the second time the King’s Palace.
After Corea’s independence and his division in two parts (the communistic north and the capitalistic south) they turned to rebuild the palace, a arquitectural site of about 410.000m2, from 1953 on. Actually there are still parts in reconstruction. I visited this arquitecture inside an impressive pleasure-ground, conceived after the rules of Feng-Shui. Each gaze results to be a harmonious image. I luckily arrived during the changing of the guards nearby the principal gate Gwanghwamun of Gyeongbokgung Palace.

Inflagrante Collecto
Some days ago I casually found this book. It's about the impressive and astonishing collection of everyday objects of Marilyn Gelfman Karp, professor of Art at the New York University. From precious series of soaps exposing them like minerals unto skulls made of suger. Collections of household mixers, rat traps or coat-hagers, all of them with this "casual" beauty of anonym design. Published in 2006 by Harry N.Abrams, New York with ISBN Nº 0-8109-5540-7. There is also an interesting website about the book: http://www.inflagrantecollecto.info/index.html

Pissing goals
At the "Smutny", a nice restaurant in Vienna with tasteful czech beer and a unforgetable gulyas, I found this curious small object at the men-toilets: it's a little goal with a small football hanging on it. So you can shoot a goal with the jet of your piss. A solution to evitate unnecessary polution. I yet saw something similar with a flie printet on the urinal, but this kind of "toy" really impressed me, especially thinkin on the fact that Austria and Switzerland are organizing the European Football Championship this year.

Bums'n Beerhouse
An unevitable visit, when I stay in my hometown Schärding is the Bums’n beerhouse. His “Baumgartner Bier” (translated: beer of the tree garden) has a fantastic taste, look and temperature. They drink it in half liter jars. Another speciality I always must order there is the “Leberkäs” (livercheese) a kind of cake of meat, which is served freshly hot from oven together with mustard and saltsticks of bread. These are nutritive memories of my childhood in the “Innviertel” (the quarter beside the Inn river)

Green volcanos
Since quite a lot of years this I spent holidays at a huge farmhouse, owned by friends of me, at Sant Cosme, Garrotxa, Catalonia, Spain.Together with my daughter, we look for all those domestic animals there, horses, dogs, chickens and cats, as well as I am watering the garden. The farmhouse is built on a vulcano, which long time ago, when still the dinos were living, was erupting lava. So actually for this and as there are quite a lot of rainy days in the Pyrenees they are very fertile and so full with rich vegetation. This sismic mouvements nataurally has stopped since a long time but the topography of this countryside still shows those particular craterforms.

Opening with friends!!
At the opening of EQUALLY_DIFFERENT in Vienna on 26th of June 2007 I met, beside some persons of the cultural life of Vienna, alos some good friends. It was a great occasion to revisiit some common memories.

At the Museo de Antropolog�a Medico-Forense
One week ago I stayed in Madrid and visited the quite particular collection of Professor Reverte. It's about a huge number of artefacts related to crime as fire arms, tools for robbery, different systems to escape from jail and a lot of other corpus delicti from murder, attempts, etc. But the collection of Prof.Reverte as well contains a group of 2000 year old mummies as well as objects related to black magic or exotic rituals. As I am actualy preparing an exhibition about mouldings and casts I looked about a number of death masks they have in the collection. The published image is a head, made of porcelaine, indicating the different areas of human brain. A beautiful object!

Pure Austrian Design: Landing in New York
My friends Andres and Julia, the so called JULAND, are unsteadily organizing exhibitions about contemprary austrian design. In the actual case they are landing in New York at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair at the Jacob K.Javits Convention Center in Midtown/Manhattan. From 19th to 22nd of May! You can get the link to JULAND at menu/about me/links

Carcassonne and Violet-le Duc
This Easter week, together with my daughter, we went to Carcassonne . I's about a three hours car-travel from Barcelona. The most impressive without a doubt is "La cité" a middle-age arquitecture of huge extensions: castle, church and big, heavy fortiification walls. The famous french architect Violet-le Duc, creator of the neogotic national french style of the 19th century was responsible for the restauration and actual appearance. On one of those impressive walls we found growing this ivy in form of a heart.

Basura de famosos
Una interesante exposición de los fotógrafos Bruno Mouron y Pascal Rostain en el Maison Européenne de la photographie de Paris me ha llamado la atención. Se trata de una série de fotos que estudia los deshechos materiales

Objet Trouv�
I found this wonderful rocking chair recently in the street. Its structure is made of steel and its armrests of wood. The upholstery is not in best condition, so I gonna change it, but the Florence Knoll style is very nice. But more than this: it's soooo confortable!! When was it produced? Maybe in the early sixties? If anybody knows about this piece leave me a message at feedback under menu "about me"!

U.S.A. 1985
A friend from Vienna posted me today this old-time picture from 1985. It was during our travel in the U.S. with my class from Linz/Austria. Our education, called "Visuelle Gestaltung"(visual creation) was a kind of academic experiment: we worked in very different art, arquitecture and design fields. We had a state-of-the-art teacher stuff as Laurids Ortner, who was our chief-professor and guru, Valie Export taught us Video-performance, Herbert Lachmeyer Contemporary Art tendencies and so on... There was no determined profession we should occupy afterwards, our education was based on multidiisciplinary training. This included as well to do travels and visits. We was really a privileged crowd of students, who afterwards each one made his own and special career.

The Blaas Family in Barcelona
A very pleasant visit: My friends from Viena arrived these days at Barcelona. Franz Blaas, an artist and writer of big value came with his wife Katharina and his son Max. On this image we were visitng the Museo Maritimo in Barcelona. His work can be easily visited by GOOGLE, just searching for "Franz Blaas" and selecting "Images" afterwards and immediatly you can see his very fine drawings, full with melancholy and humour!

A book for these holidays!

If someone did'nt noticed: we published this year the book "umd/c – uli marchsteiner, designer/curator", which resumes our projects of the past 10 years. It is edited and distributed by the H2O Gallery in Barcelona. You can find it on Internet under www.loring-art.com searching for "umd/c".

My Hofner Galaxy
A nice guy and specialist in electric-guitar refurbishing repaired my old hofner guitar. It's dated on 1965! By the hand I bought a small VOX amplifier and I am so happy with this that you can't imagine, trying to play some solos of Carlos Santana or Deep Purple....Trying!!!

Hermanos Campana at the FAD
Tonight we gonna meet this famous brasilean cople of designers at the FAD. They will be together with Massimo Morozzi and the italian company EDRA. Sure to be an interesting evening. I'm gonna write more about this afterwards!

GALA DE AUSTRIA
To design and direct the set-up for a huge charity event with 1400 people is all a challenge. On 15th November 2008 at the Palau Nacional, a monumental building in Barcelona's Montjuich mountain, the GALA OF AUSTRIA, a traditional Austrian dance festival was held. A gala dinner for about 1000 guests was prepared by a Viennese chef, followed by an opening in form of a Polonaise with 120 couples of Debutants. There were also the interventions of famous Viennese opera singers like Marcela Cerna and Miroslav Dvorsky. At the same time a concert by the Catalan jazz singer Laura Simó was performed in another ballroom of the Palais. Even a funny DJ session of the Red Bull Academy was presented at the end of the event. Inside and outside of the monumental building the set-up design, directed by Uli Marchsteiner consisted of a large red carpet, which guided the guests to the different ballrooms, bars and terraces. At the big Oval Ballroom, 87 gala tables were grouped around a large dance floor. The technical device for impressive lightning effects was crucial for the image of the event. Different lighting environments, previously scheduled, flooded the room in stunning visual compositions. The success of this event, organized by the Gala Austria Office, under the leadership of Christian Gessl and his team, will have certainly a future in Barcelona and even in other Spanish cities.

THE UTILITY OF EMPTINESS
The idea of emptiness as an integral element of creative practice was the starting point for this project. This exhibition shows the fascinating relation between matter and non-matter, full and empty, positive and negative form. Through a selection of about 120 pieces from the visual arts, architecture, design, natural sciences and industrial engineering an important bunch of architects, industrial designers and artists were shown, as like Gijs Baker, Günther Beltzig, Manolo Blahnik, Luigi Colani, Charles & Ray Eames, Antoni Gaudí, Judith Höfel, Thomas B. Lamb, Ross Lovegrove, Enzo Mari, Marc Newson, Verner Panton, Man Ray, Oscar Tusquets, Victor Vasarely, Henry van de Velde, Marcel Wanders, Rachel Whiteread.
A highly recommendable catalogue was published by the Museu de les Arts Decoratives, edited by Uli Marchsteiner and with texts by Gillo Dorfles, Albert Ribas, Anthony Vidler, Daniel Giralt-Miracle, Rachel Delphia, Gerd Siekmann, Isabel Campi and Uli Marchsteiner. Under menu/downloads you can see a preview of this publication, available in three separated editions in Catalan, Spanish and English and internationally distributed by Actar D.

ARTS AND CRAFTS IN ARCHITECTURE
For the Artesania Catalunya center, an institution supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya we designed a fair stand at the Construmat Fair entiteled with "Arts and Crafts In Architecture". There was a participation about 19 craftsmen, who normally work in contemporary architecture projects. For example Cerámica Cumella, who realized the impressive rooftop of the Santa Catalina market, designed by Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue.
The idea of the fair stand was to create individual spaces without losing a visual continity and a constructive lightness. A spectacular big sized photography made by Raul Torrent showed the cromatic quality of each of those craft projects.
The result of the stand design was very apreciated as well by the craftsmen as by the huge crowd of visitors, who passed during the week of 14th to 19th of May 2007.

ESDI 2007
After two sabatic years we turned to develope a new corporative space for the ESDi School of Design at the ESTUDIA–Educational Fair in Barcelona. The idea is a collection of conic structures, which enables a very open and flexible composition. The client wants to re-use and complete this modular display and furniture system on further ferial events. Tha grafic design and audio-visual installation was realized by students of the ESDi School in Sabadell.

TSI
Una escuela miembro de la Universidad Ramón Llull, que compartía espacio ferial con ESDi, tambièn nos encargó el montaje para el Saló d'Ensenyament 2007 en el recinto de Montjuich de Feria de Barcelona. Punto de partida eran las siglas TSI (Turisme Sant Ignasi) a los cuales correspondía a cada una unos plafónes gráficos formando una casita como si de un castillo de naipes se trataára, aprovechando el espacio interior para crear una zona de información illuminada por focos.

Cutlery ON?LINE
A commission for a company in the catering industry in Catalonia. The elongated form and smooth curves denote a model of cutlery that is adapted to the new demands of modern kitchenware. It is a product that is aimed at a wide, accessible market.

UMD/C 95?05: Uli Marchsteiner, Designer/Curator
A retrospective exhibition about my projects between 1995 and 2005. We presented project-related objects, models, drawings and texts inside of white drawers suported by a thin metalstructure. The main idea of this project was to show this kind of controlled chaos, which exists normally in archives. The top of the drawers were protected by transparent plasticsheets with text and images. These drawers were bought at the IKEA shops of each country were the exhibition were shown, so we could avoid a voluminous transport. The exhibition at the Galerie Göttlicher was opened by the director of the Vienna Center of Arquitecture, Dietmar Steiner and by Dr.Katharina Blaas, representant of the Departement of Culture of the Government of Lower Austria. A special project was realized for the gallery: the "Light-drawer" is a luminous sign in form of a drawer, which knob is a colour-changing LED spot, remembering those old knobs made of nacre.

IV BIENNAL OF EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
The exhibition design presented a high number of selected projects of the fourth call for the best landscape architectures in Europe. It consisted on the one hand to create a suggestive visual order, on the other the exhibition set-up was inspired in those typical wood containers used by the catalan farmers when they harvest on their apple-plantations. Beside the light-panels, designed together with Nicolas Roldan, the exhibition highlighted some materials, used in the awarded landscape projects. At the opening event we offered fresh apples and cider drinks.

EVERYDAY CHAMPIONS ? The Delta Awards for the finest industrial design
The idea behind the exhibition, deliberately didactic, consisted in explaining the intrinsic value of 35 products that were awarded the prestigious Delta Award in the years between 1961 and 2005. But how was it to be done? In order to connect with a public of all ages, with little inclination for reading long texts, an artist-illustrator was brought in, one known for his critic view of chic design. Through the seven sections of the exhibition: inventing the wheel, serial individuality, dignifying coexistence, the human factor, better living, intelligent material and surviving the environment – the 35 products were displayed in a route that took visitors around seven luminous hexagons. The exhibition also benefited from the brilliant collaboration of Juanjo Sáez and Vanessa Cabrera.

HOME THINGS
The collections of the municipal archaeological archive of Sabadell were the basis for the creation of an exhibition showing the elements that make up a house and its environment. Water pipes from the early 20th century, electric whisks from the sixties, a collection of irons, or video documentation of the craftsmanship of the mattress maker. The exhibition was structured around the basic daily activities that take place in a house: eating, washing and cleaning, personal hygiene, sleeping and entertainment. The passage through the exhibition was livened up with videos of Spanish advertisements from the fifties and sixties. The exhibition was staged using a range of colours that matched the kitchens and bathrooms of these periods.

PLATE FOR FOOD FOR THE SPIRIT
This piece was created on behalf of a friend and universal artist, Antoni Miralda, for his projected Food Culture Museum. It is based on a plate that bears a spiralling crack because of its extended use. In the centre of the plate, there is a graphic emblem from the packaging of pharmaceutical products, marking this area of the plate as the point on which to place a tiny ration of food, or a medicinal pill.

EQUALLY DIFFERENT ? Everyday objects from around the world
Different cultures develop different ways of dealing with everyday life. Depending on the climate, the belief system and society, we can find certain artefacts that make our daily activities easier. The project proposed a collection of contemporary objects, all of which were to be acquired in their places of origin. They could be the different methods of heating employed in Canada, Morocco or China. Lemon juicers that are used in Mexico, Tanzania or Fiji. Objects that are at the meeting point where the globalisation of markets rubs against the local native cultures. To find these objects, a journey was arranged that was to last for four months, and which took me, the curator, accompanied by the artist/photographer Leo Schatzl, through 14 countries on the five continents of the globe. Canada, the USA, Mexico, Brazil, Morocco, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, India, China, Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand and Fiji. Searching in markets, stores and private houses, we got together a collection of 1,300 objects, along with a photographic archive of 15,000 images, and 35 hours of video documentation. This resulted in a rigorous selection of 800 objects for the exhibition in the galleries of the FAD in Barcelona, in a display that was designed and set up by Niall O’Flynn together with his team. The seven sections into which the exhibition is divided are exhaustively documented in the book designed by David Torrents, and are accompanied by a brilliant text by Ettore Sottsass. Eating, Washing, Reproducing, Relaxing, Protecting, Communicating and Working Lives a video documentation of seven creators of objects that were very different from each other, but all designed for the purpose of everyday life.

FARMACIA Ring
The ancient romans used certain rings for guarding poison in their interiors. The idea of carrying medicine in a discreet way inspired this piece, of which ten units were manufactured in silver, with a hinged lid and the symbol of the pharmacy engraved on it. The presentation, in the gallery itself, explored the universe of pills, both in therapeutic and recreational use, together with texts and music and a video installation by Oriol Caba on the subject of the their consumption.

PAST FUTURE ? Design Between Utopia and Science
Nothing changes as quickly as the images we have of the future. Reality is constantly outpacing fiction. Nevertheless there is an interesting relation between the imagery of science and the industrial design of each period. This exhibition concentrates on three periods when advances in the natural sciences had a visible influence on design and architecture. The first is the appearance of aerodynamic lines, the design derived from the wind tunnel and the extension of this styling to products that are not fast moving vehicles. The second is the space age, the seventies, and the images of the lunar landing broadcast by NASA around the world (without entering the controversy of whether they were real, or were the product of a secretly filmed simulation). The third and final area of the exhibition looks at the biotechnological advances of the nineties, and how it was reflected in the ecological and organic concepts of industrial design. The exhibition was put together with objects from Gerd Siekmann’s splendid collection, pieces from the Gestaltung Museum in Zurich and the works of contemporary artists and designers.

RECREATION JOSEF HOFFMANN
An exhibition of furniture designed by the modernist designer Josef Hoffmann in Vienna, and currently being reproduced by the prestigious Austrian firm Wittmann. The idea of this project was to relate these pieces of furniture to the context of some authentic interiors created by Josef Hoffmann at the start of the 20th century. The pieces were presented together with a historical photograph of the interior in which the furniture had been cut out, as though it were the missing piece of a puzzle. The displays were based on two crossed walls, joined in the form of beams of indirect and incorporated light. Instead of black and white, the colour scheme employed a dark blue tone, also a common feature of some of Hoffmann’s work.

PRIMAVERA DEL DISSENY 2001 (SPRING DESIGN FESTIVAL 2001)
To organize a festival of these dimensions on a shoestring budget and a team of two people is a daunting challenge for a designer and commissioner of exhibitions. An event with such a diversity of proposals for exhibitions would call for an organizational structure that is both clear and comprehensible. The programme of the 6th edition of the Spring Design Festival comprised 11 sections, including, Primavera Persona (biographical exhibitions), Primavera Premium (awards and competitions), Primavera made in (exhibitions of other countries’ works) etc. One of the most outstanding areas was that of Primavera Tema. Each edition of this festival had suggested a generic theme which was given special attention. That year the theme was called REW<<2001>>FFWD – design, between the vision of the future and the traces of memory. These abbreviations, that are used in audio and video equipment, established two points of view from the situation currently experienced in 2001: one back into the past and the influence of memory- rewinding time- and the other looking to the near future – and the new trends that it would bring with it.

BEST BEFORE...FASTER AND FASTER ? Design On Time
Time, and its relation with different artistic disciplines was chosen as the central theme in the programme for the Kunsthalle Krems during 1999. It was set in motion and promoted by the director, Carl Aigner, and the aim of analysing the dual concepts of design and time in the form of an exhibition represented a vibrant and attractive challenge. In an exhibition space measuring 1,800 m2, the curriculum vitae of industrial products was traced. Where are objects born? What is their life expectancy? Where do they die, and how are they disposed of. Eight areas configured a journey from the moment when the idea for a product takes root in the creative imagination and in market surveys. When it is born as a new product in showcases and trade fair stands, when it reaches the market, impeccable and attractive, ready to be bought and consumed. When it gets worn down by use and ages until it gets repaired, recycled and converted into a collectors’ item or disappears completely. The exhibition offers a multitude of palpable considerations in a setting accentuated by intense chromatic effects and heterogeneous spaces. They may be mock ups and prototypes of famous industrial products, fashion items and objects of juvenile culture, artefacts from everyday life in past times, restored or redesigned items of furniture, or installations made by guest artists.

THE HELPER? From Domestic Servants to Service?Design
An exhibition that was a long time in preparation, until it became a multiple portrait of the phenomenon of service. Starting with humans performing domestic services, 20th century society has experienced a continuous process wherein these human assistants have been replaced, converting them into appliances, machines and mechanised robots. The exhibition was divided into three large areas: 1. Personal domestic services, 2. The mechanical servant 3. Service as paradigm. The star of the show was the Electra-Technovision, the first completely automated cooker, a manifesto of the visionary design from the early 1970s. The perspectives were many and crossed the boundaries of many disciplines, ranging from documents on dealing with servants, to the image of the highly-sexed housewife, to remote control devices and robots. The collaboration of Birgit Mager, from the Fachhochschule Köln, provided important viewpoints on the future of the concept of service-product-company.

WHITE CUBES
The Barcelona Design Centre (BCD) convinced the Chamber of Commerce to install a mobile storefront, built with a metal frame on wheels and white fabric walls in the central Diagonal Avenue in Barcelona. The design incorporates a wide variety of lighting and a vertical display hanging system. The white cubes served on the outside as changing windows facing the street, and as large light screens up the inside.

ERROR DESIGN ? The failure in the object
In his book The Evolution of Useful Things (1992), the American scientist Henry Petroski transformed the well-known expression coined by Louis Sullivan ‘Form follows function’ into ‘Form follows failure’. It is certainly true that the poor performance of a design, the failure of an industrial product, and its rejection on the part of the public are all interesting developments, and not only for the industry involved. This collection, which was the first in a series of themed exhibitions in the Kunsthalle Krems, presented a range of objects, all of which had been bought in shops and department stores, and which clearly suffered from a pathological Error Design when analysed. The patients were organized into three areas. 1. Touching and reaching: products that reveal their deficiencies in the difficulty they present in their manipulation, their ergonomic design. 2. Seeing and understanding: products that are incapable of communicating visually, and which open a breach leading to errors and incorrect use. 3. Being and seeming: products that with their appearance suggest a promise that will not be honoured, for example, misleading packaging, false brand names. The impact on the media and the significant number of visitors confirmed the interest and identification that this subject aroused in the consumer society of the final years of the 20th century.

10 YEARS OF THE VALL�S SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
A simple and attractive format was sought, with the intention of presenting photographs and documents detailing the activities and events in the life of a group of musicians as numerous as those who make up a symphony orchestra. Elastic strips were used to create pentagrams in space. The photographs were placed on these flexible strings as though they were musical notes. This idea helped to avoid the monotony of a flat, monotonous display on the wall, and created a three dimensional route, with added “tension”.

NUVIA (BRIDE)
Inspired by bridal dresses, it is made of two types of cloth, raw silk on the outside and a fine white veil on the inside

PIROLUX Lamp
For the collective exhibition titled Porno Design I used a pair of classic long-johns made of white cotton, a soft fluorescent light with a phallic shape and a light anthropomorphic metallic structure to create an ironic standing lamp, a unique piece. The saying “sex sells” was confirmed as far as the considerable coverage that it was given in newspapers and magazines, but in terms of commercial production, there was no company willing to risk making this light, with its switch mechanism in the form of two little balls, that would turn the apparatus on when pulled.

GUERRAS FRATRICIDAS
To show a selection of photographs from the Magnum Agency from Paris it was necessary to conceive an important visual impact to the exhibition-design, giving away the idea of typically glassframed images hanging on a wall. The four parts of the exhibition, defined by the curators Marta Gili and Agnés Sire, were designed each one in a different color and material, introducing expressive elements like metal fence, burned wood or gray, rough feltcloth. The diffiiculty was to give an emotional strongness without to fall into a pathetic redundancy. The exhibiton was coordinated by his Majesty Princess Cristina de Borbón, who showed her great collaborative spirit, working at the turbulent exhibiition set-up until late night hours.

TOOLS?Design of the Elementary
In many senses, tools are prosthetic limbs that are used to extend, specialize and protect the body and nervous system. It is through them that we can surpass our natural limitations, and distance ourselves from the animal kingdom from which we emerged. The exhibition is arranged into five parts, each dedicated to one of the fundamental senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. The choice of tools and objects ranges from prehistoric axes to the latest models of drills, from medieval drums to modern loudspeakers, from corpus delicti to medicinal apparatus. This display offers the spectator an opening into the sensorial world of tools.

WERK'ZEUGE ? Design des Elementaren
Se presentó con la exposición con el mismo título en 1996 como catálogo de la colección del Museo Federal de la Alta Áustria. El libro de 192 paginas contiene, a parte de una amplia ilustración de las piezas expuestas, textos y entrevistas de personalidades como Achille Castiglioni, Gillo Dorfles, Fernando Amat, Franz Blaas, Ernesto Ventós y otros. La publicación está dividido en los cinco ámbitos expositivos–nuestros cinco sentidos báscios: Mirar, Oír, Oler, Tocar y Saborear.

Service CLAY EYE / UP&UP / KAROLINE
CLAY EYE consiste en una cazuela de barro cocido, integrada en un soporte-bandeja de madera, formando visualmente un ojo humano (¡pensando en el dicho de que la comida entra por los ojos!). Así resulta más fácil servir platos gratinados sin quemarse los dedos.
Los cubiertos UP&UP son de madera y pueden mantenerse en alto sin manchar el mantel y adquieren así un aspecto escultórico.
El mantel KAROLINE es un estampado de cuadros blancos muy informales sobre un fondo algodón rojo. El proyecto fue seleccionado en un concurso de la empresa alimenticia Maggi.

DAS STAATSGESCHIRR (TABLEWARE FOR THE STATE)
Organized by the Austrian Government and the ÖIF (the Vienna Design Centre, now disappeared), with a first-rate international panel of judges, we were awarded the first prize and the immediate order to proceed to production. Our joy was short-lived, however, because the political and media circles surrounding the Austrian Government in 1995 fought against the project. The proposal included the idea of introducing subtle indicators that would mark the correct amount of each liquid or solid. The glass for red wine included a kind of lip to show the level that the wine should reach. The plates bore a golden mark that indicated where a cover should be placed over them, so that the arrangement of the food on the plate could be perfectly set for the guest to see. The concept behind the project was the blending of function and decorative elements. The prototypes that were made by the Hutschenreuther company can be seen at present, in their state of hibernation, in display cabinets of the Imperial Treasure chambers in Vienna, next to the tableware and cutlery belonging to the famous Empress Sissi. Perhaps they are awaiting the eventual arrival of a prince – of industry – who can rouse the project with a passionate kiss.

SUITCASE XXI
This exhibition, which identified itself as being allegorical, was the result of an invitation to established professionals from the areas of design, architecture, traditional crafts and the fine arts to prepare for an imaginary move into the 21st century. Each of the participants was asked: Which object, because of its purpose and intrinsic value, would you take with you into the coming century. The notion of comparing the move from one century to another with moving house lay behind Suitcase XXI. Moving house and long journeys often force us to gather together and select our belongings. It is in the moment of packing things that our common sense reveals what we really want to take with us. To have asked each contributor to make a full suitcase would have been an exaggeration , but we obtained at least one object from each of them that they would not leave behind when moving to the 21st century. The exhibition was set up as though someone were moving house, placing cardboard boxes inside other boxes to create a display in the style of a peep-show. The entrance was a check-point with open suitcases, a normal scene in the customs inspection areas of airports. Among the 35 objects presented, there was a variety that ranged from a pencil, a pillow, some adhesive tape, some pliers or even an amulet, a bottle of vodka, a copy of “Treasure Island” or a toothbrush designed by Philippe Starck.

CAF� MACAYA
We were asked to reform a restaurant at Culture Centre of "Fundació la Caixa", installed at this time in the Macaya Palace, an Art Nouveau building in Barcelona built by the well-known Catalan architect Puig i Cadafalch. The idea was to create a interior space inspired by the Viennese cafes with his comfortable sofas, warm lighting and presence of wood and brass. A false ceiling, with built-in air conditioning, opens in the center to a bright artificial sky. On the sidewalls we designed a rail system to display exhibition posters in-between some mirrors, which give more visual space to the project.

L'ART EN LA PELL
This exhibition, curated by the renowned historian Joan Ainaud de Lasarte showed the collection of Munmany Colomer, consisting of a wide range of items all made in natural leather. Many pieces most of them from the seventeenth-century required a careful treatment. To present those objects I designed a display case made of cherry wood. We made two nearly opposite designs of the exhibition space: one had a bright luminous ambient with curtains of natural white cotton, the other had dark painted walls and floor carpet in a dark blue colour. Light and dark spaces alternated during the itinerary and created a changing rhythm. This was the first exhibition in which I learned how to treat museistic values.

CADA CAD�VER (A Game for Three)
Under the name "Cadavre exquis" surrealist artists of the 1920s introduced the creative concept of chance in art by the help of a game in which each player has to draw a part of a body but none of the group can see the drawings of the other. This concept we translated into three-dimensional objects in the field of design. The participants of the game Anna Bujons, Meritxell Duran and Uli Marchsteiner, created three entire figures, each one consisting in three parts: head, torso and legs, designed independently by each author.
The result was presented in an exhibition in the official programme of the Design Biennale Primavera 1993. A booklet with an introductory text by the great American Fluxus artist Alison Knowles was published.

ALTERA UTILITATE
This exhibition is an incursion into the manipulation and reuse of everyday objects. ADI FAD (Industrial Design Association for the Promotion of Art and Design) has invited renowned architects and designers to propose objects who were originally designed for one function but are used as well for a completely other one. For example clothes peg, often are used to temporary close packs of noodles or coffee, newspaper as a wrap up material to maintain cold or warm temperature ...
The inspiration for the exhibition set-up came from a medieval engraving of a table with a tablecloth in relief creating a desktop landscape. I reinterpreted this idea with fluorescent bulbs placed on a board and covered with a white cotton cloth. The result was a nice luminous landscape that pronounced and separated the exhibited objects between smooth valleys and bright dunes of white illuminated cotton.
It was one of my first exhibition projects and the remarkable success in the opinion of the public encouraged me to continue in this field.

CYMBAL Lamp

From 1992 on the market, it has demonstrated its lasting aesthetic and commercial value. There was also a version featuring two dishes or with a chrome finish. The spherical counterweight makes it easy to raise and lower to the required height, and a ring around the bulb prevents dazzling.

STAND AG
The idea was to create an elegant space with areas of passage between outside and inside. The basic concept of the project comes from the square format of the floor plan, a inscribing circle and his diagonals are the structure of the stand. The materials have a finishing inspired in the thirties: walnut panels and glamorous curtains.