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Art Spaces

Installations of Iris von Herpen

Spaces within spaces: they are one of the architectural trademarks of Swarovski Wien. The art spaces illustrate the link between Vienna City Center’s popular shopping mile and Swarovski’s shimmering shopping worlds, but they are far more than a conceptual parallel: They are a platform for artists.

Biomorphism

by Iris van Herpen

For the Swarovski Kristallwelten Store Wien, which is celebrating its tenth birthday this year, Iris van Herpen is designing five art spaces as her very personal ode to the performance of femininity.

The cubes of the Swarovski Kristallwelten Store Wien, which jut out over the bustling street in the middle of Kärntner Straße, turn out to be the ideal stage for Iris van Herpen, the Haute Couture designer from the Netherlands who is internationally renowned for the futuristic drama of her collections.

BIOMORPHISM: Iris van Herpen's surreal dance with nature

Her trademark avant-garde dresses look like sculptures but play with movement at the same time. Van Herpen is known for her pioneering work in utilizing 3D printing technology in fashion design.

>> more about Iris van Herpen

Art Spaces of the Swarovski Kristallwelten Store Wien.
Lucid Dreams: a larger-than-life woman’s head was created that sleeps and dreams in the shop window.
Micro: The “Aeriform” dress
Lucid Dreams" and the "Infinity" dress
Lucid Dreams: a larger-than-life woman’s head was created that sleeps and dreams in the shop window.
Cymatic: sound waves as evolving geometric patterns
Cymatic: sound waves as evolving geometric patterns
Visualizing the invisible shows the larger-than-life glass sculpture of a face
The “Infinity” dress
Micro: The “Aeriform” dress
Visualizing the invisible shows the larger-than-life glass sculpture of a face



„Each of the stages is an ode to the power of the infinite, to countless changes within us. They are a very personal expression of my fascination for dance, nature, and surrealism“


Hypnotic installations in the heart of Vienna

Iris van Herpen takes her inspiration for the work called “Biomorphism” from living organisms and patterns found in nature. She forms them into hypnotic installations in which she demonstrates the performance of femininity. Originally from the world of fashion design, van Herpen’s installations for the Swarovski Kristallwelten Store Wien use a wide variety of media to express the basic themes of movement and transformation.

The installations are realized in collaboration with Rhea Thierstein.

"Lucid Dreams"

The most sensational installation is “Lucid Dreams,” a larger-than-life hyperrealistic woman’s head that sleeps in the shop window facing Kärntner Straße. The head is dressed in voluminous jewelry; a sculptural necklace and ear-cuff designed by Iris van Herpen.


"Infinity" und "Micro"

Those cubes show elaborately handmade Couture dresses in the typical style of the Dutch designer.


„Visualizing the invisible“

A larger-than-life glass sculpture of a ghostly female face was created in collaboration with the Tyrolean glass artist Bernd
Weinmayer.


„Cymatic“

Van Herpen enters unusual terrain in “Cymatic,” a kinetic photo installation that explores he flow – and the disruption – of a dancing body and a piece of clothing.

InstallationS

Spread over three floors of the store, there are installations of various artists and innovations made out of and using crystal.

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