April 26, 2014

VERNER PANTON AT VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM




VERNER PANTON AT VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM
BACKGROUND: VISIONA 1970 - REVISITING THE FUTURE
February 07,2014 – June 01,2014




VERNER PANTON AT VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM
BACKGROUND: VISIONA 1970 - REVISITING THE FUTURE
February 07,2014 – June 01,2014
From 1968 to 1972, the chemical corporation Bayer rented an excursion boat that was transformed by well-known designers into a temporary exhibition space on the subject of contemporary living. Held during the Cologne Furniture Fair, the forum was used to present the latest developments in interior textiles, whereby a balanced relationship was sought between representing various products and presenting several furniture and textile makers. By collaborating with prominent contemporary designers, the intention was to complement the technical possibilities and practical uses of Bayer’s artificial fibers with aesthetic and artistic aspects – with the designer serving as a link between manufacturer and final consumer. Thanks to Verner Panton (»Visiona 0«, 1968 and »Visiona 2«, 1970), Joe Colombo (»Visiona 1«, 1969) and Olivier Mourgue (»Visiona 3«, 1971), the »Visiona« exhibitions are still today considered exemplary for the avant-garde living concepts of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They offered designers a platform for presenting new, revolutionary ideas, promoted public debate and the cultural importance of residential living, and provided the industry with new inspiration. Verner Panton’s interest in new materials and his experience in the realm of textiles formed the ideal foundation for his pioneering designs of »Visiona 0« (1968) and »Visiona 2« (1970). He created dreamlike spaces and space-like dreams in unusual shapes and colors that stretched across the entire interior of the boat. While »Visiona 0« could be described as a departure from traditional styles of living, »Visiona 2« was entirely focused on the question of living in the world of tomorrow. It broke the traditional understanding of space with its clear ascription of functions, instead creating surroundings that were dedicated to well being, communication, and relaxation. For this, Panton designed numerous design objects, including furniture, textiles, lighting, wall and ceiling coverings that formed in highly imaginative arrangements a series of very different spaces. As an integrative component, he developed both a lighting concept and atmospheric sounds for the individual spaces, like the song of a nightingale, the cry of an owl, bee humming, cat howls, or waves. The Phantasy Landscape (also called »living cave«) on the main deck of the »Loreley« – generally remembered as the most impressive space of »Visiona 2« – can be considered the climax of Panton’s
creative vision. This room discarded all traditional notions of architecture: the floors, walls, ceilings, and furniture seemed to be created from a single cast. The windowless space lacked any connection to the outside world and presented itself as an organic landscape, characterised by dynamic curved shapes that seemed as though they were cut out of the material itself. The elements in various shades of blue and red were like a multiplication of his famous Living Towers placed after one another: the blue shades on the outside, the red shades increasingly becoming brighter on the inside, so that the psychedelic arrangement appeared to glow from within. While the designs of Panton’s contemporaries often evoked associations with outer space, Panton’s livable sculpture with its warm colors and soft textiles sought to bring the interior life of the human being to an outer form.





PHANTASY LANDSCAPE - VISIONA 2 - IMM Köln
Möbelmesse / Cologne Furniture Fair, 1970
© Panton Design, Basel




PANTON CHAIR 1959 -1960






















VP4 FLOWERPOT LAMP










PANTORAMA 1979




PAUL HENNIGSEN COMPETITION 1964








PANTORAMA 1979






PHANTASY LANDSCAPE - VISIONA 2 - 
IMM Köln Möbelmesse / Cologne Furniture Fair, 1970
© Panton Design, Basel






LIVING TOWER 1969








AMOEBE HIGHBACK 1970






AMOEBE 1970




PHANTASY LANSCAPE - VISIONA 2
Wall elements (1969, produced by Harlacher)
Cologne Furniture Fair, 1970 © Panton Design, Basel






PENDANT LAMP VP GLOBE 1969 – 1970










CLOVER LEAF SOFA






PHANTASY LANSCAPE - VISIONA 2
Spiral lights (1969, produced by Lübner)
IMM Cologne Furniture Fair, 1970 © Panton Design, Basel






SPIEGEL PUBLISHING HOUSE 1969






SPIEGEL LAMP 1969-70




PHANTASY LANSCAPE - VISIONA 2




EXHIBITION KOEBESTAEVNET 1959




CONE CHAIR 1958












COPENHAGEN CIRCUS BUILDING 1984




PHANTOM CHAIR




VARNA RESTAURANT 1971






PANTO FOUR 1997




PANTO MOVE LUPO




PANTO STACK 1998




PANTO SWING 2K




PANTO SWING 1994




COMPASS LUPO






HEART CONE CHAIR 1959








COLOGNE FURNITURE FAIR 1960 




WIRE CONE CHAIR 1958










PHANTASY LANSCAPE - VISIONA 2 – 1970
















VERNER PANTON
Verner Panton, born 1926 in Gamtofte, Denmark, studied at Odense Technical College before enrolling at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen as an architecture student. 

He worked from 1950-52 in the architectural firm of Arne Jacobsen, and founded an independent studio for architecture and design in 1955. His furniture designs for the firm Plus-linje attracted attention with their geometric forms. In the following years Panton created numerous designs for seating furniture and lighting. 

His passion for bright colours and geometric patterns manifested itself in an extensive range of textile designs. By fusing the elements of a room—floor, walls, ceiling, furnishings, lighting, textiles, wall panels made of enamel or plastic—into a unified gesamtkunstwerk, Panton's interior installations have attained legendary status. The most famous examples are the "Visiona" ship installations for the Cologne Furniture Fair (1968 and 1970), the Spiegel publishing headquarters in Hamburg (1969) and the Varna restaurant in Aarhus (1970). 

Panton's collaboration with Vitra began in the early 1960s, when the firm decided to develop what became his best-known design, the Panton Chair, which was introduced in 1967. This was also the first independently developed product by Vitra. 

Verner Panton died in 1998 in Copenhagen. Vitra's re-edition of designs by Panton, as well as the retrospective of his work mounted by the Vitra Design Museum in 2000, bear witness to the special relationship between Vitra and Verner Panton.

http://www.vitra.com/en-un/corporation/designer/details/97695