Touching Tales, The Alcantara Experience is the event that Alcantara & DAMN ° presented at IMM Cologne 2016 in collaboration with four design studios, to explore the potential of Alcantara.
For this special project, in the name of tactility and contemporaneity, four talented independent design studios were invited to "experiment" with the Made in Italy material with a registered trademark to create unprecedented, surprising installations, presented to the public in two different locations. Colony.
The material tale Formafantasma, Moritz Waldemeyer e Anton Alvarez was staged in the evocative spaces of the Kunsthaus Rhenania on the Rheinauhafen, a splendid location overlooking the River Rhine that stood out as a real creative reservoir, while a surprising installation signed by Henrik Vibskov welcomed the public at the Fair.
The protagonists, known for combining high technology with craftsmanship, understood as sartorial attention to detail, worked freely choosing from the infinite colors or decorations possible on Alcantara® to restore a completely original vision of the material and its values. Not only beautiful, pleasant to the touch and highly functional thanks to its technological DNA, Alcantara® has also revealed to the authors those characteristics of ethics and responsibility that today are of increasing importance in the world of design, inspiring new applications.
The Science Spooner, an installation conceived by the eclectic Danish designer Henrik Vibskov for the space at the fair, recalls a scientific laboratory experiment: inside a sort of rectangular box, bounded by an Alcantara® curtain, Vibskov places 15 cones hanging from the ceiling , coated in various shades of green of the material. Moving from top to bottom thanks to a motorized mechanism, these come to touch, with a pointed end, a glass container containing water, creating a unique dripping effect. The internal LEDs that shine through the holes made on the cones give a discreet and bewitching brightness.
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Henrik Vibskov the Science Spooner 3
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Henrik Vibskov the Science Spooner 2
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Henrik Vibskov the Science Spooner 1
From the Fair at Kunsthaus Rhenania, where the Italian duo Formafantasma with the project Strata emphasizes the versatility and strengths of Alcantara®, coming to conceive a series of simple elements that suggest different applications for the material, emphasizing the contrast with other natural elements such as marble, metal and stone. Used as a belt to hold some heavy pieces together, Alcantara® demonstrates extraordinary strength.
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Formafantasma Strata 9
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Formafantasma Strata 8
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Formafantasma Strata 10
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Formafantasma Strata 7
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Formafantasma Strata 6
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Formafantasma Strata 5
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Formafantasma Strata 4
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Formafantasma Strata 3
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Formafantasma Strata 2
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Formafantasma Strata 1
Moritz Waldemeyer designed for 火曜日 kayoubi a refined work on technology. The Anglo-German engineer and designer proposes an installation essentially consisting of lampshades: applying an extra layer of ad film a particular variant of perforated Alcantara®, Waldemeyer has created a texture that, combined with light, transforms the material into something rich and precious.
The result is a fascinating effect, highlighted by the screen surrounding the installation and defines
one private emotional space.
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Moritz Waldemeyer kayoubi 1
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Moritz Waldemeyer kayoubi
Finally, the Chilean-Swedish artist Anton Alvarez for the work New Skids on the Block plays with the varied Alcantara® color palette to create original furnishing accessories. Composed of soft sticks that have a structure in wood and aluminum covered in foam and completed with soft Alcantara®, the elements, of human dimension, seem "alive", like bodies fighting or clinging to each other.
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Anton Alvarez New Skids on the Block 3
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Anton Alvarez New Skids on the Block 4
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Anton Alvarez New Skids on the Block 5
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Anton Alvarez New Skids on the Block
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Anton Alvarez New Skids on the Block 2
Touching Tales The Alcantara Experience Anton Alvarez New Skids on the Block 1
The partnership with DAMN °, an international magazine that has always been an independent voice of design, architecture, art and creativity at 360 ° confirms the eclecticism of Alcantara and the company's ever-keen attention to grasping signals and trends from the world creative.
Andrea Boragno, President and CEO of Alcantara SpA, says: “The project with DAMN ° took shape following a series of events that saw us as protagonists in Italy and on the international scene, particularly in the United States and the Far East. After presenting the material and its values linked to sustainability, uniqueness and versatility, proving the infinite possible applications, we felt the desire to expressly return to design, looking onto the international stage in Cologne with a strong impact exhibition, curated by an independent publication. and authoritative voice of the world of creativity as DAMN °. For Touching Tales we have chosen to let talented young artists interpret Alcantara®, in the belief that the dialogue with the creative avant-gardes is doubly stimulating: for designers, who can find the answer to the most challenging inspirations in the performance of the material, and for our Research and Development department, always discovering new possibilities and new languages for Alcantara® ".
Explains Walter Bettens and Siegrid Demyttenaere (both Editors and Publishers of DAMN °): "When Alcantara shared with us the desire to celebrate the uniqueness of the homonymous material in front of IMM's international audience, with the strategic aim of striking the hearts and minds of designers, companies and influencers present in Cologne during the days of the Fair, it seemed natural to us to involve young creatives who could move easily on the borders of so-called industrial design. We have given a single indication to the four studios, chosen for their original approach and their vocation for experimentation: to work on the extraordinary characteristics of Alcantara® in a surprising and innovative way. Projects of great creative force were born, free expression of the talent of the protagonists and the intrinsic values of Alcantara® ”.
