NEW DESIGNS: Hugo Boss is expanding its involvement in the arts to include the world of design. The Metzingen-based fashion brand has long underwritten the Hugo Boss Prize in cooperation with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, introduced the Hugo Boss Art Asia Award last October in Shanghai, and this February hosted the David Bailey exhibit “Bailey’s Stardust” in partnership with the London National Portrait Gallery. Boss has now signed on with the renowned Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein as a global sponsor of “Konstantin Grcic-Panorama.”
Opening Saturday, this is the largest solo show of Grcic, who works for many leading design companies such as Authentics, Flos, Krups, Muji as well as Vitra. The 49-year-old has numerous contemporary design classics such as “Chair _One” or the “Mayday” lamp to his credit.
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Expressing his personal vision of the future, Grcic developed several large-scale installations specifically for the exhibit: a home interior, a design studio, an urban environment. The highlight is a 30 meter long panorama depicting an architectural landscape of the future. A fourth area focuses on Grcic’s daily work, featuring finished objects, prototypes, drawings, artefacts which have inspired him.
“Design and fashion are kindred spirits,” commented Hjoerdis Kettenbach, head of cultural affairs at Hugo Boss. “Both seek to forge something new; both are driven by a will to capture the spirit of their time.”
To make the most of the link, Boss will host a Design Talk on April 9 in the brand’s Milan flagship on the occasion of the Salone del Mobile. Grcic will be accompanied by Vitra museum director Mateo Kries and Wallpaper’s Tony Chambers.
“Konstantin Grcic-Panorama” runs through Sept. 14. The show’s next stop is Z33 – House for Contemporary Art in Hasselt, Belgium from Feb 1 to May 24, 2015. Together with Vitra , Z33 collaborated with Grcic over a three year period to develop the exhibition, which is accompanied by a 320 page catalogue in German and English.