November 12, 2014

WIREFLOW DESIGN BY ARIK LEVY FOR VIBIA 2013




WIREFLOW DESIGN BY ARIK LEVY FOR VIBIA 2013 




WIREFLOW DESIGN BY ARIK LEVY FOR VIBIA 2013 
Wire Flow evolves from infrastructure to object, from industry to beauty, from cable to light ….. a sculpture that can have endless configurations in space, interact with the three-dimensional space while keeping its transparent quality and weightlessness sensation.
The wire flows from one point to the other, from the wall to the ceiling, following the horizontal forms to become an invisible object in space. It’s just as if my sketch was coming to life, as if a pen stroke could become energy and imagination reality.
The octagonal light heads are equipped with high performance LED sources; these are encapsulated in the pressed crystal light diffuser like magical fireflies enhancing both light distribution in space and form.
 It may grow to any dimension and feature any amount of lights side by side to its endless references in the neo romantic world of chandeliers.

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ARIK & PIPPO
Levy and Lionni have started together a very unusual and fruitful collaboration. A pure industrial designer the first, a pure graphic artist the latter, in their professional practice they come together as true partners, without forced compromises, but rather helping each other's ideas shine. What brings them together is not only friendship, but also a shared attitude toward design, based on experimentation, playfulness, modernist discipline, and occasional bouts of artistic elation. This short text is not an exegesis of their work, which is generously illustrated in this volume, but rather a homage to this odd couple of design and to the issues that inform their work and that they represent.

ART & DESIGN

Art and design are sometimes very difficult to tell apart. Some individuals do not consider the distinction necessary at all, and move between the two spheres only by switching the end goal almost quantitatively : a few collectors rather than a wider public as the final destination. Most artist/designers and designer/artists tend therefore to bring the same inspiration to a different expressive challenge. Donald Judd's furniture, for instance, is as sharp-edged and minimalist as his art. Ettore Sottsass' photography is as human and soul-searching as his design.
Arik and Pippo are at home in both universes. They build installations in galleries and work for commercial clients in order to produce objects in big series. Their attitude is reminiscent of Bruno Munari, who pioneered this particular revolution, the wiping away of the distinction between design and art. "The artist uses imagination, while the designer uses creativity" the late Italian artist and designer used to say. Creativity, in his mind, took into account the industrial environment and its needs, the manufacturing and distribution techniques, as well as the final recipients of the object. Creativity also enabled him to finalize his own artistic experiments on forms and materials towards useful goals. The imagination part, on the other hand, was left up to the owner of the object. So as to not only let art be for everybody, but also to let everybody be an artist. An art object that is prone to be used, that humbly shows itself in need of some kind of human intervention, can be accepted as useful entertainment. Similarly, a useful object that promises and delivers emotion and surprise, the way an art object could, is more inviting and can provide new suggestions about how to be used. Surprise is the connection between art and design, and so is energy. Arik and Pippo incarnate this blurry distinction.
HERE & THERE
Try asking Arik and Pippo where they are from. At different times, depending on the mood, they are French, Israeli, Italian, you name it. Although one wonders what is quintessentially Israeli, Italian, Spanish, or Russian, truth is they are powerfully modern characters in a country that has written an important chapter of the history of modernism and which continues to export that tradition, while also positioning itself at the forefront of the present.
Design is one of the most ancient and spontaneous human activities. Throughout the course of the centuries, and especially in the twentieth, design has actively participated in the progressive globalization and re-definition of visual and material culture. In the process, it has provided some of the most engaging and advanced examples of how local and global culture can interact and enhance each other. Arik and Pippo speak in a distinctive worldly tongue that comprises the characteristics of their eclectic generation, while they draw generously from their own tradition and the education that they received at school and at home. As true contemporary designers, they work for a coterie of international clients and still speak their own languages, without turning to Esperanto.
SUBSTANCE & STYLE
Lionni and Levy matured as designers at a time of profound changes in design and in the world at large. Our perspective on the material world has evolved dramatically during the past decades. After the sensorial and material overdrive of the Eighties, the jaded inhabitants of the western hemisphere seemed ready for a new obsession, this time with simplicity and purity. The new code of action in the field of design was best symbolized by Droog Design (or "dry design"), the Dutch movement that celebrated a brand of ingenuity and economy that has been transformed into a coherent minimalist aesthetic. Droog Design made its first appearance in 1993 and ushered in the beginning of what some labeled the neo-minimalist era, a healthy and welcomed systemic revolution that would lower everyone's blood pressure.
Dutch design of the mid-nineties also revealed the emergence of a new balance between technology and artifacts. All over the world, contemporary design does not glorify advanced technology in the way it did during the 1980s, but rather it appreciates technology for its ability to simplify and/or enrich our visual and material landscape. In other words, for how it can simplify our lives by making objects lighter, smaller, and less formally obtrusive, as well as less onerous on the environment.
Arik and Pippo have learned to live in the moment and balance the means at their disposal against the goal at hand. Their training is somehow deeply rooted in a modern attitude of economy and sensibility, and the emancipation from the dictatorship of style has worked to their advantage. After the stylistic impositions of the past years, in fact, the world privileges originality of ideas. L Design does not promote a style, but rather communicates joy in the invention and in beauty, pleasure and humor in the alliance of creativity, and pride in the display of technical and constructive skills.
A mere successful synthesis of form and function ceased to be satisfactory a long time ago. Beauty is a relative and ambiguous definition. The 1970s intellectual stratagems "for instance the assumption that feelings and emotions are actually functions themselves" do not seem to work any longer, either. In our demanding present, we are looking for meaningful objects that can make a synthesis of all of the above. And meaning is the subject of play in Pippo's work with symbols especially, symbols which he twists ever so lightly in order to produce surprise.
TECHNOLOGY & CRAFTMANSHIP 
Very high technology can today coexist in a peaceful synergy with very low technology, and good contemporary design is therefore an interesting composition of high and low. Some advanced tools, like the latest version of Photoshop, actually demand manual interference in order to be mastered, while some low-tech materials that respond (at least in appearance) to ecological needs, like the cardboard Levy uses for his lamps, initially demand a crafts intervention because of their essential nature. Experimentation, be it high- or low-tech, requires a hands-on approach, and the flexibility and novelty of the materials and manufacturing methods available today has stimulated the exploration of numerous possibilities.
Designers face today the multiple challenge of a need for old-fashioned economy of design of means and goals, in order to achieve sensible retail prices, satisfactory product lifecycles, and adequate socio-environmental precautions; and at the same time the need to interpret the complexity of a multifaceted and sophisticated public, who expects objects to be connectible between themselves and the rest of the world. Today, technology offers designers a new exhilarating freedom of inspiration. Levy and Lionni have learned to take advantage of this like in a jazz improvisation, with an elegant nonchalance that can be acquired only through years of strenuous technical exercise. Energy drives them in their exploration of materials and shapes, and often leads them to design statements that are haiku-brief, incisive, and at the same time open-ended ideas filled with eloquence and meaning.
Paola Antonelli,
Curator of Architecture and Design Department
Museum of Modern Art, New York

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ARIK LEVY
"Creation is an uncontrolled muscle" according to Arik Levy (born 1963).
Artist, technician, photographer, designer, video artist, Levy's skills are multi-disciplinary and his work can be seen in prestigious galleries and museums worldwide. Best known publicly for his sculptures – such as his signature Rock pieces –, his installations, limited editions and design, Levy nevertheless feels
"The world is about people, not objects."
Hailing originally from Israel and moving to Europe after his first participation in a group sculpture exhibition in Tel-Aviv in 1986, Levy currently works in his studio in Paris.
His formation was unconventional where surfing, as well as his art and graphic design studio, took up much of his time back home. Following studies at the Art Center Europe in Switzerland he gained a distinction in Industrial Design in 1991.
After a stint in Japan where he consolidated his ideas producing products and pieces for exhibitions, Levy returned to Europe where he contributed his artistry to another field – contemporary dance and opera by way of set design.
The creation of his studio then meant a foray back to his first love, art and industrial design, as well as other branches of his talents.
Considering himself now more of a "feeling" artist, Arik Levy continues to contribute substantially to our interior and exterior milieu, his work including public sculpture, as well as complete environments that can be adapted for multi use. "Life is a system of signs and symbols," he says, "where nothing is quite as it seems."
CURRENT ART EXHIBITIONS
Atomium, Brussels – RockGrowth 808 Atomium – public space permanent installation and exhibition –
2014/04/25
Crystal Worlds Museum, Wattens – Transparent Opacity – five-year solo installation – 09/2012 to 2017
SELECTION OF ART EXHIBITIONS & INSTALLATION
2014
Louise Alexander Gallery, Porto Cervo – Uncontrolled Nature – solo exhibition – 06/2014
Ilan Engel Gallery, Paris – New Works – solo exhibition – 06/2014
Atomium, Brussels – RockGrowth 808 Atomium – public space permanent installation and exhibition –
04/2014
Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels – Full House: 100 artists – group exhibition – 04/2014
Fondation EDF, Paris – Que la lumière soit – RewindableLight art video – 04/2014
2013
Galerist, Istanbul – Activated Nature – 11/2013
Enclos des Bernardins, Paris – RockGrowth installation – 09/2013
Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris – selection of artworks alongside the exhibition “Dans la ligne de mire” – 09/2013
Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein – RewindableLight art video – Lightopia group exhibition – 09/2013
La Maison Champs Elysées, Paris – Crater_F210 and installation of other artworks – 09/2013
Galerie Maubert, Paris – Nouvelle Lune – group exhibition – 04/2013
Alcazar, Paris – Fractal installation and photo exhibition (Orchids and Seduction series) – 04/2013
Mitterrand+Cramer, Geneva – new sculptures – solo exhibition – 03/2013
2012
Passage de Retz, Paris – Nothing is quite as it seems – solo exhibition – 11/2012
Bisazza Foundation, Montecchio Maggiore – Experimental Growth – solo exhibition & permanent
collection – 11/2012
Galerist, Istanbul – Le Jardin de la Spéculation Cosmique – group exhibition curated by FatoÅŸ Ãœstek –
10/2012
Crystal Worlds Museum, Wattens – Transparent Opacity – two-year solo installation – 09/2012
Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv – Genetic Intimacy – solo exhibition – 09/2012
London Design Museum, London – Osmosis Interactive installation at Swarovski’s Digital Crystal –
Group Exhibition – 09/2012
Jardin du Hauvel, Saint-Hymer – Art et Nature – group exhibition curated by Jean-Gabriel Mitterrand –
06/2012
Hedge Gallery, San Francisco – Flections – group exhibition curated by Sabrina Buell – 06/2012
Priveekollektie, Heusden aan de Maas – Emotional Deflection – solo exhibition – 05/2012
Galerie Maubert, Paris – Le Sacre du Printemps – group exhibition – 04/2012
Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv – Arik Levy & Guy Yanai – group exhibition – 03/2012
Stonetouch, Geneva – Candelabra – group exhibition – Nuit des Bains – 03/2012
2011
Natural History Museum, London - installation - Regeneration : Chaton Superstructures at the Natural
History Museum
JGM. Galerie, Paris – M+C group exhibition
Galerie Pierre-Alain Challier, Paris – Un regard d'Obsidienne – group exhibition
Design Museum Holon, Israel – Post Fossil: excavating 21st century creation – group exhibition –

21_21 Design Sight gallery, Tokyo – Reality Lab – group exhibition
You may visit Arik Levy's web page to see more information to click above link.