VIENNA DESIGN WEEK 2008

“The first year revealed that Vienna has the potential to position itself with a design festival”, says Neigungsgruppe Design happily.

“The Austrian design scene needs a stage like this to visualise and exchange ideas on an international level. We aim at developing an independent programme for the future that strengthens Vienna sustainably as a design city.”Vice mayor and economic councillor Renate Brauner summarises why departure and the City of Vienna get involved with the festival:

“Design is all around us. It often enriches and eases

everyday life, but is only made clearly visible by events such as the VDW. Design is a crucial part of the Creative Industries as an important and dynamic economic factor for our city. The input of design can be an essential advantage in competition. We have to make people more aware of this. This is why I am happy that departure and the City of Vienna are once again partners of the VDW and I am looking forward to the multifaceted programme.“

Brigitte Jank, president of the Vienna Economic Chamber, has good reasons, too, for supporting the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK:

“Professional creative accomplishments are an important impulse transmitter for the Viennese economy – one reason for the Vienna Economic Chamber to support VIENNA DESIGN WEEK again this year. The design festival has the potential to show Viennese creativity and make it well-known. For this reason it provides an economic surplus. As partner of important creative initiatives such as the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK the Vienna Economic Chamber underlines the importance of entrepreneurial power in the creative sector. Thus, Vienna can be positioned as first-class creative and economic location.”

Specials provide thematic variety The newly created series of specials is a central aspect of VIENNA DESIGN WEEK and extends the thematic variety to international positions. “Design Open Air“ starts with the festival opening on October 2 when the installation by Kram/Weisshaar and Rieder Smart Elements is uncovered on the forecourt of Liechtenstein Museum. The design duo was just

awarded with the “Designers of the Future Award 2008“ by “Design Miami/Basel“. Together with Rieder, the Austrian manufacturer of light-weight concrete discs, they develop a largesize installation which will later be divided into segments and will then be on display all around town.

A Design Safari in cooperation with Architekturzentrum Wien allows tours through the scene in Bratislava and the Designblok-Festival in Prague. This offer accomodates the networking and visualisation of design activities in the Central European area.

Another novelty of VIENNA DESIGN WEEK’s programme is a prize for young design talents, the focus on toddlers together with design °mobil of the University of Applied Arts and Zoom Children’s Museum, a film series and a series of talks as well as a symposium. Like last year VIENNA DESIGN WEEK presents a country specific exhibition in Vienna: the Netherlands, this time. The Nederlands Architectur Instituut (NAi) shows “Tangible Traces“ in the Austrian Museum of Ethnology. Different programme partners, from museums to design shops, offer an even greater variety of exhibitions, events, and other in-house design positions.

Supported by Vienna Economic Chamber and departure the ten interventions of the “Passionswege 2008” (Paths of Passion) are one key element of VIENNA DESIGN WEEK. Being invited by Neigungsgruppe Design, ten designers or design teams create site-specific installations in Viennese shops. On a curious trip through Vienna the public can discover places with charm as well as young, international design. Designers this year include –amongst others: Nicole Aebischer (CH), Maxim Velcovský (CZ), Bartosz Mucha (PL) and Marco Dessi (Italy) as well as Austrian stars such as EOOS and Gregor Eichinger. In the framework of One Night Stand visitors can ask designers about their everyday life in rooms of the Hotel The Levante Parliament.

The question „where to go?“ will have a clear answer in Vienna in October: parties and cocktails call for dancing shoes and let you relish the start into a a design autumn at VIENNA DESIGN WEEK in Vienna – a city full of design.