Swarovski Wien Presents Artist Arne Quinze

Swarovski Wien

press release (pdf)

With its innovative blend of sophisticated artwork and spellbinding product displays, Swarovski Wien promises to be both a unique and experimental fusion of buying and beholding. When, on 2 December, the new inspirational centre of the Swarovski brand opens its doors for the first time in Vienna’s Kaerntner Strasse 24, sparkling installations by Belgian artist Arne Quinze will captivate visitors’ imagination.

Swarovski Wien wants to surprise its visitors with new retail environments and intends to create inspirational patterns of perception between design, everyday culture and a crystalline shopping landscape. Against this background, Swarovski Wien again gathers together numerous creative minds. Andreas Braun, CEO of d. swarovski tourism services gmbh: “Swarovski Wien represents a manifestation of our multifarious partnerships, an international network of creative human beings full of imagination which aside from André Heller, our long-term artistic advisor, also includes Arne Quinze.”

The Belgian artist Arne Quinze will create a variety of multimedia installations for Swarovski Wien – on the one hand a “Crystal City“ in the entrance area and on the other hand “Stilthouses with Crystal“ in the distinctively artistic cubes. In these works, Arne Quinze attempts to trace the architectural imprints of human development. “Rather than promoting interaction, the endless sheer pace of urban development promotes the isolation of the individual. The ‘Stilthouses’ can thus be regarded as ‘future houses,’ and at the same time parody the contemporary human way of life,” says the artist about his work. In this way, he wishes to point out the limited interaction. He strongly believes that people have the possibility to interact, but just don’t do it due to organization of current society. At the same time he proclaims the desire for open
communication, embedded in a human environment. Just as Swarovski Wien symbolises the “democratisation of luxury,“ Quinze, too, has some aspects of this concept in his creations; for Quinze, luxury is as fascinating as it is transient. It is this contradiction which the Belgian artist traces in his artistic interventions.

Working on the fringes of art, architecture and design, Quinze has evolved into an internationally known artist in recent years. His atmospheric and media-effective wooden installations, which appear to have been whirled into shape by tornadoes, are meant to cause a stir. Despite their fragility and drive, these temporary sculptures also exude a surprisingly quiet reflectiveness. His ability to direct chaos and to produce both asymmetrical forms and the harmonised fusion of opposite extremes, create rising tensions full of contrasts. “We are convinced that the installations that have been produced exclusively for Swarovski Wien, will exert a similar attraction on our visitors,” Braun is confident on the occasion of the artists’
presentation.

In addition to the artistic stagings in its interior, this spectacular architectural intervention in the heart of Vienna also offers onlookers a world premiere from its exterior. The facade, which is illuminated by LED crystal light modules, the Swarovski Architectural Elements, conveys constantly changing moods, alternating from glimmering lava to glittering ice. Also, Tyrolean architects’ Hanno Schloegl and Daniel Suess exciting constructional realisation, which separates old structures from new only to gradually reunite them, resorts in its last consequence to a specific crystalline design vocabulary reflected in the element of the cube. Thus, the irregularly distributed bays, extending into the street area and pervading the exterior facade, form theatrical cubes for the inside and the outside world with corresponding varying insights and outlooks. These fantastic spaces form the stage for the fascinating installations by Arne
Quinze.

With €15,000,000, Swarovski Wien 2009/2010 belongs to one of the most significant investment worldwide of the Austrian concern. The company was warmly welcomed in Vienna. “Our idea of fusing the existing building stock with an innovative brand presentation in the heart of Vienna was extremely well received,” explains Andreas Braun. “In the past 20 years, Swarovski has built up a strong consumer brand. Our new location in Vienna reflects our identity as an Austrian/Central European brand. But we also want to become part of Vienna’s identity.” In this context, Braun finds encouragement in the company’s many successful cultural initiatives, which it has been pursuing for more than 15 years in Swarovski Kristallwelten in Wattens and Swarovski Innsbruck in Innsbruck.

Short Biography
Arne Quinze was born in Belgium on 15 December 1971. He began his artistic career with street art and graffiti. Later, he founded the design label “Quinze & Milan” and became famous for his strikingly colourful design in foam. However, since then he hasn’t limited himself to designing furniture. For a number of years, he has shown sensational wooden installations, art pieces and paintings at fairs, festivals, in galleries and in public places. He also founded the “Studio Arne Quinze”, which focuses on conceptual architecture and which Quinze sees as a creative research lab. Besides his art studio in Miami, he also operates another studio in Belgium, Kortrijk.

In the meantime, Quinze has become a highly sought-after artist and has never ceased to break new creative ground. Exciting temporary architecture, giant sculptures and dynamically flowing designs take shape within the framework of the Belgian artist’s projects. As a crossover artist between art, architecture and design, he has established a new quality of design.

On the occasion of the “Salone Internazionale del Mobile” in Milan, the world’s most important furniture design fair, the paths of Quinze and Swarovski crossed several times. In Milan, Swarovski Crystal Palace regularly assembles the works by highly promising designers and artists who employ the fascinating creative material of crystal in order to generate fascinating elements from empty spaces via light and particles. Aside from the light sculptures “Ellipsis & Fragments“ (2008) and “Dream Saver“ (2007), Quinze presented a 12-metre-long walkable object of brightly glittering high-tech plastic whose interior spaces are lined with a total of 5.5
kilometres of Swarovski crystal chains at the Milan event.