Silent thoughts in a dungeon of beauty
This year Nika Zupanc returns to Milan Design Week focused on distractions of all sorts, presenting an installation that elevates her insightful citations of everyday objects to a painfully new level.
Nika Zupanc’s installation ( Self Discipline ) at Spazio Rossana Orlandi questions self discipline, or the lack of it. Her pieces focus on distractions of all sorts, presenting an installation that elevates her insightful citations of everyday objects to a painfully new level.
“Flirting with monastic asceticism, the installation of a chandelier, desk, and chair provokes the thoughts on today’s key values, needs, habits, and the minimalism of life choices we are able to choose from. All of the items are therefore designed with an afterthought, made from durable materials, bearing in themselves the possibility that an object could survive us all.” – Nika Zupanc
Flirting with monastic asceticism, the installation of a chandelier, desk, and chair provokes the thoughts on today’s key values, needs, habits, and the minimalism of life choices we are able to choose from. All of the items are therefore designed with an afterthought, made from durable materials, bearing in themselves the possibility that an object could survive us all.
Nika Zupanc at Spazio Rossana Orlandi
Via Pontaccio 18.
Nika Zupanc traditionally makes careful selections of her themes and forms. With them she offers an unwelcome look at the predominately male furniture-design market, where all the aspiration is poured into the technical, rational, sober, and utilitarian, as opposed to the intuitive, eclectic, vain, and hysterical. To accomplish this Nika Zupanc uses her poetic judgment, inner battles with stereotypes, and long-lasting affairs with technologies. She mindfully explores the limits of the industry when it comes to emotional effect and the juxtaposition of materials.
With her newest installation, the visitor gains insight into a kind of modern paradisus claustralis. If Sylvia Plath once found the worst enemy to creativity in self-doubt, Nika Zupanc is here to question selfdiscipline or the lack of it.
Pompom Lamp
“Bring waves of boldness into rationally organized dwellings is its high-class mission. The moment it falls from the ceiling it becomes an obvious imposer. High on shine ropes leave little to ponder: you want to touch them, even steal a sneaky peek, just to see where all the glow is coming from. While it may seem like something that is totally content to be reduced to yet another fatally beautiful thing, its bold, cold curves tell a different story. Next time you will think. Twice?”
Homework Chair
“You’ve rested your body on different types of seating devices, but have you ever tried to place something underneath you and make it come closer? It has every detail that the first league offices want you to have, except that it’s not afraid of being delicate, slightly deranged, and otherworldly. The hi-tech, retro-look mechanism zooms in and out with the help of a sleek handle, while the brass wheels dance all over the place.”
Homework Table
“Where can all the evidence of dangerous liaisons be stashed? Well, in the pocket of course, and what a fabulous pocket it is. The monolith business meaning table can elegantly unhook and open up like a true pulp-fiction novel, letting out a fan construction of pleated textile. This is where you can keep all your bits and bobs and paperwork of exceptional importance like bills and, well, dirty words hidden under the harmlessly-looking surface.”
Homework Cabinet
“The prêt-à-porter got all emotional about conventional and convenient storage methods, causing constant clashes and other messy encounters among them. After all, they were not made to be thrown into darkness. For people that merely yawn in the presence of a walk-in closet, a wardrobe cabinet on brass wheels–with a paper fan that plays the role of the drawers–provides an interesting piece of fashion advice. Its capacity shrinks and expands with the number of little black dresses or trench coats inside, but it is always stylishly belted with a plush silk band.”
About Nika Zupanc
Nika Zupanc graduated with honors from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana in 2000.
Her bachelor’s thesis received the prestigious university Prešeren Award for students for the highest achievement in industrial design in 2001.
After graduating, she started working as an independent designer and today she is a regular member of various product-design projects throughout Europe.
In 2004 the British Council selected her as a talented young professional in the Rising Stars of New Europe project, and the next year she was selected as a national finalist in product design for the IYDEY (International Young Designer of the Year) award, organized by the British Council and 100% Design.
Between 2005 and 2007 she showed off her range of works everywhere, from 100% Design and Designers block in London, the Young Talent Show in Hong Kong, the Review Gallery at the Center for Architecture and Design, and the Lighthouse in Glasgow to Milan Satellite and gallery shows.
In April 2008, the MOOOI furniture company presented a family of her Lolita lamps at the Salone Del Mobile in Milan.
In June 2008, her Maid chair was exhibited as part of the exhibition Backstage: A Sideview on the MOROSO Design Collection at Gallery 113, curated by Patrizia Moroso. In April 2009, Zupanc presented a range of objects from her own collection at Superstudio Piu; her exhibition was titled I Will Buy Flowers Myself. The exhibition was seen as one of the biggest hits of Milan Design Week. In addition, MOROSO introduced her Tailored chair at Fiera Milano.
In April 2010, she presented a new exhibition of her work at the Temporary Museum of New Design at Superstudio Piu. 5 O’Clock table and 5 o’clock chair, designed by Zupanc, were introduced as a part of the new MOOOI collection.
In the international press, her work has been described as everything from “punk elegance” (Elle USA) and “Techno chic” (BusinessWeek), to “larger than life” (Clear magazine) and Zupanc as “the real star” (The Wall Street Journal).
