At the invitation of curator Guta Moura Guedes, Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram have been commissioned to design a site specific installation for the exhibition FLEXIBILITY, one of the four main shows on the occasion of TORINO WORLD DESIGN CAPITAL 2008.
The installation titled JAILBREAK is positioned in the central cell block of the former prison and shows 17 models of objects from the VENDÔME series, the latest project of the office that was introduced during DESIGN MIAMI/ BASEL on the occasion of the DESIGNERS OF THE FUTURE AWARD 2008. This body of work takes a precondition of endless and flexible transformation as its point of departure. In the spirit of Weisshaar and Kram’s crucial project BREEDING TABLES (2003-ongoing), the idea of VENDÔME is to parametrically generate a family of unique concrete objects with diverse typologies including stools, pedestals and tables through the use of advanced software. The entire edition is limited to 99 designs.
A custom-developed computer program capturing the mould making process allows the designers to play with a wealth of table, stool and pedestal typologies. The proposals generated by the programmed algorithm are then selected and fine-tuned by the designers. At the press of a button a defined geometry can be processed and the technical specifications for the casting mould are generated and passed on to numerically controlled machines.
The installation JAILBREAK in Turin presents a selection of scale 1:1 cardboard models for VENDÔME stools, pedestals and tables. That the solid concrete of the VENDÔME pieces was replaced with the makeshift material cardboard hints at the importance of the interactive and iterative process developed by the designers, constantly shifting between physical and digital models, reviewing and refining the materialised output of the software. With the help of physical cardboard, the infinite formal solutions inscribed in the series are tested at 1:1 scale. At the same time use of cardboard in the installation emphasizes the potential for change inherent to the process and the fact that each object may serve as the prototype for innumerable other objects. The cardboard models are piled up to a three storey high tower evocative of DNA-strands. In its evolutionary character the JAILBREAK installation thus points out the essential characteristics of the project: physical permanence vs. endless mutation and development.
Other participants in the FLEXIBILITY exhibition include Ross Lovegrove, Patrizia Urquiola and Matali Crasset.
