
06.14.19
Fair Report
Six More Things We Loved at This Year’s Design Miami/Basel
Who knew that the buzziest place during this year’s Design Miami/Basel would be the comments section of Vitra’s Instagram? After the Swiss furniture company debuted an installation and limited-edition collection in which fashion designer/Kanye BFF Virgil Abloh reimagined classic Jean Prouvé items from Vitra’s archives, a fight broke out in the comments between design purists — asking concerned questions like “Are you OK, Vitra?” and joking that the orange-hued pieces were actually designed by Home Depot — and hypebeasts delivering emoji-filled hosannas and wondering how they could get their hands on the items. While we agree with some of the criticisms leveled, and typically roll our eyes at most projects seeking to leech off of Abloh’s hype machine, we honestly didn’t hate the outcome, nor do we believe that some great irreversible damage has been done to Prouvé’s legacy. Feel free to come at us in our Instagram comments.
Moving on, there were a few other major standouts this week in Basel, such as Floris Wubben‘s increasingly complex and ambitious experiments with extrusion for The Future Perfect, stylist Connie Hüsser‘s curated object menagerie, and Franco-Danish duo OrtaMiklos‘s collection of blobby furniture — made with a wacky melange of materials like concrete, paper pulp, electrical wire, and stockings — inspired by Roman decadence. Check them out below.
Objects With Love, Curated by Connie Hüsser
Drill Vases by Studio EO
Tray by TAF
Candy Column by Sabine Marcelis
Sculpture by Roosje van Donselaar for Post Modern Collection
Lazy Roman by Christian Neuenschwander
Candleholder by Ward Wijnant for Oddness
Shell by Bloc Studios
Floris Wubben at The Future Perfect
OrtaMiklos at Functional Art Gallery
Virgil Abloh c/o Vitra
Studio Buzao for Gallery All