Organizer:

GAA Foundation

Host:

European Cultural Centre

Curators: 

Camille Guibaud and Anaïs Hammoud

Opening Period: 

26.May – 25.November 2018,  täglich von 10 bis 19 Uhr 

Location:

Palazzo Michiel, Venice, Italy

Pioneer event VENICE DESIGN is the largest International Design exhibition running alongside La Biennale di Venezia. From May 26th to November 25th 2018, the third consecutive edition of VENICE DESIGN will again be hosted by the European Cultural Centre. In the historical location of Palazzo Michiel, facing the Grand Canal, international Designers invade the venue to express themselves and to propose a singular reflexion on materialising, shaping and transforming our daily environment. Design will show its ongoing connection between body, object and space challenging the visitors to interact with pieces and immersive installations.

Around 50 international creators from 30 different countries and of various cultural backgrounds are invited to present their processes and visions towards Design. Constellations of creators will shine a light on the meaning of conceiving and producing our forthcoming living spheres through conscious designs, innovative objects and experiential installations. Through their social and ethical processes, some invited Designers are raising a collective awareness leading to significant statements. While a few reflect upon innovative approaches towards shaping and re-thinking materiality, others will offer physical experiences. Palazzo Michiel becomes a vibrating space where interdisciplinary Design inspires and stimulates curiosity. The body as a structural architecture and a performative element at the core of those initiatives will reconnect with its interactivity.

(text and informations above from: Palazzo Michiel)

Wall Covering "Emotion", 2018

Lavinia Hausner, AUT

vegetable tanned pig bladders

Organic shapes, unusual materials and the playful use of surfaces based on natural structures outline the work of Lavinia Hausner. She consciously localises her projects between art and design: the aspect of utility is extended by making the viewer aware of hidden inherent interrelations, which are mirrored by his or her emotional response.

Already during her studies Lavinia Hausner has explored organic, particularly animal materials and has searched for possibilities to use them in the field of design. Her main focus of attention has primarily been on the inner parts of animals. The intestines of slaughtered animals are often seen as waste by the butcher industry. This is contrary to the dignity of the animal. To emanate from the idea of increasing the value of these inner structures by using them in matters of design, Lavinia Hausner has intensively researched the techniques of conservation, as well as the possibilities of the production of „inner“ leather, especially made out of pig-bladders.

Simultaneously the examination of the animal body has led her to the cognition of ambivalent emotions and a traditionally existing difference between the assessments of its outer and inner parts: while the body of a dead animal, still covered by fur, is associated with warmth and evokes a craving for touch, the sight of the opened cadaver in contrast is nauseating and provokes fear and feelings of guilt. These emotions are most likely caused by the direct confrontation with death. It is remarkable that the awareness of slaughter seems to completely fade away in the moment of meat consumption or during the usage of leather, since no negative feelings are perceptible (while in the meantime the imagination of intestines still provokes disgust). In order to avoid an inner conflict, which could minimize the satisfaction, it seems to be necessary to separate good from evil, pleasant feelings from painful ones, the outer from the inner parts of the animal body. This classification might be supported by the culturally negative connotation of excretory organs. Deriving from the inner parts of the animal body, the usage of pig-bladders as basic materials for the design of a „good“ object, might ease the borderline between good and evil and cause ambivalent feelings. 

This theme was also subject of Lavinia Hausner’s final project for the obtainment of the B. A.: a cape made of vegetable-tanned pig-bladders as a luxurious leather clothing. This creation was the beginning of a multipart project. For the Vienna Design Week she produced a stool upholstered with several vegetable-tanned and coloured pig-bladders. The third object of this series is the wall covering that has been particularly designed for VENICE DESIGN 2018. The natural form of the pig-bladders generates the basis for an extraordinary wall design, useful in terms of room-acoustics, as well as sound insulation.