VELTINS Design Lounge at CONTAIN Gallery

Cologne, Jan 19-24
As if diving into green air: upon entering the VELTINS Design Lounge visitors were absorbed by the green light that virtually coated everything and everyone inside CONTAIN Gallery. For one week’s time during Koelner Passagen 2010 the gallery hosted an installation by product and interior designers Mathias Witte and Fabian von Spreckelsen – winners of the VELTINS Design Lounge contest.

The green lighting, seemingly unreal as it diffused out of the lounge and on Aaachener Straße, drew inside invited guests, design aficionados and passers-by – around 1.200 in number, opting for a beer and an unusual lounge, yet finding more than that:

while everywhere else during the Passagen 2010 event they were merely spectators of design, the cooperation of VELTINS, CONTAIN Gallery and DESIGNSPOTTER provided them the opportunity to become a part of it.

The pixel wall was where it all happened: at the heart of the exhibition space Fabian von Spreckelsen and Mathias Witte had set up a magnetic wall with a primed pixel pattern and more than 3.000 dyed crown caps. Essentially, the crown caps were also magnetic, thus free to move on the wall. For one part, the two originators had composed a typo and several motifs out of them. For the most part though, the wall was left to the visitors of the lounge to play with and to concertedly generate a distinctive pattern.

As for the diversity of the messages found in the course of the week, the creations on the wall ranged from political appeals to greetings, icons and signatures, the wall taking on the spirit of the individuals visiting and reflecting their mindsets, respectively. Then again, others who got to the place would change the look of the wall altogether, re-arrange, re-compose and build their art from scratch.

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