This year, the Virtual Design Destination by Adorno will be the place to discover fourteen curated country collections of collectable design during the London Design Festival, featuring more than 200 exclusive pieces. The theme for this year’s first Virtual Design Destination by Adorno is “The New Reality”.
Preparations for “The New Reality” were initiated during the surge of COVID-19 in Europe. The curators of the fourteen participating countries have been asked to reflect on specific experiences, thoughts, and themes from the time of lockdown in the curation and art direction of each of their country collections. They have been working with their local designers at the intersection of craft and design to develop sub-narratives to the overarching theme, including gender, urbanisation, climate, isolation, and healing, among others. Using design as a tool for change, “The New Reality” pursues effective and innovative solutions, bringing different knowledges and experiences together through design to investigate what our new reality is.
A Truly Interactive Virtual Exhibition
As a digital-first online gallery, Adorno has set out to revolutionise the way we experience design and art online. Working with a skilled team of 3D developers and artists, the aim is to take the term “online exhibition” to the next level. Virtual Environments are often showcased as simple images or videos, but, for the Virtual Design Destination, Adorno will use the latest technology to make these environments fully interactive. Adorno has partnered with the pixel streaming platform Furioos to provide real-time rendering from any browser or VR headset, making it possible for visitors to freely navigate around immersive, country-specific environments to experience the collections that have all been modeled in 3D. Visitors will even be able to meet the designers through integrated video interviews. Last, but not the least, visitors will be able to experience more than 100 pieces in their own homes by enabling Virtual Reality to place the
objects in their surroundings with a smartphone.
The identity of Latvian design can be summarized in three words: natural, emotional and authentic. Latvian design is deeply rooted in folk traditions, closeness to nature and the ability to find beauty in simplicity. The unique value lies in the thoughtfulness of the design and the permeating emotional story. The skills developed throughout the centuries to master the available natural resources – forests, fields and waters – form the basis of contemporary Latvian design. The source of inspiration for the collection is the sea. The sea is a solid part of the DNA code of Latvia as its role in our lives is invaluable. It evokes a sense of hope and a sense of future, an unpredictability, a passion, a wealth and a power. The sea has inspired us for centuries and it continues to inspire us today. It affects how we live, what we think, feel and create. The collection manifests the synergy between man-made design and nature. It gathers outstanding Latvian designers of various disciplines and generations, united by the passion to discover new dimensions of material, as a result of endless experiments. All six designers represented in the collection offer a synthesis of original objects, visual effects and lights.
Artis Nimanis opens the door to a journey through the world of magical glass with his glass objects. Sabine Mezkaze Berzina follows along these lines by working experimentally with blown glass, creating never-before-seen artistic value objects that carry encoded messages. Designer Ieva Kaleja opens up a world of other materials for us. She shows a fascinating play with contrasting materials in her lamps. For the lamp “Queen” she chose to combine precious and everyday materials – gold and corroding steel, thus also breaking the stereotyped boundary between valuable and worthless. In turn, the young jewellery designer Jelizaveta Suska’s artwork gives a dimension of emotionality by experimenting extensively with colours. In her collection Rebirth, she boldly interprets the most important material in Latvian jewellery-amber. The new designer Renats Kotlevs creates furniture in an eclectic manner with metallic sheen, colour contrasts and wood textures highlights. And finally, Jānis Straupe should be classified as a classic himself as his creations in wooden furniture design are novelty and classicism at the same time. He stands out as his signature touch can be seen from far for many years already.
The objects included in the collection disclose the absolute beauty of the precise details and techniques noticeable when looked at close up, while the dazzling effect of the designs can be seen from afar. They call “Near and Far – Be Dazzled!”.
PROGRAM
Visitors will be taken on a virtual tour through each
collection by the country curator each day during the Festival (GMT)
Sat.12 September: Launch Program
Sun.13 September: Sweden 10:00 AM & Denmark 15:00 PM
Mon.14 September: Iceland 10:00 AM & Norway 15:00 PM
Tue.15 September: Romania 10:00 AM
Wed.16 September: Finland 10:00 AM & Estonia 15:00 PM
Thu.17 September: Latvia 10:00 AM & Lithuania 15:00 PM
Fri. 18 September: Poland 10:00 AM
Sat.19 September: Netherlands 10:00 AM & Belgium 15:00 PM
Sun.20 September: France 10:00 AM & Spain 15:00 PM
More information:
www.adorno.design
#VirtualDesignDestination