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Celebrated late German lighting designer Ingo Maurer, the eponymous design company presented FLOWAIR at the BASE Milano during Milan Design Week 2024. The dynamic outdoor installation combined amorphous textures, flowing forms, and organic elements to create a surreal visual experience for the visitors. During the daytime, wind machines and natural breezes animated the installation's 16 elements while at night, vibrant LED lights in blue, red, and white illuminated the space, evoking a scent of light.
Maurer's team persistently pursues the vision of creating distinct installations tailored to the location in question. While last year’s installation, Light – Floating Reflection, displayed light, colours, and reflection through a 30-metre-long carpet at the Porta Nuova traffic island, this year’s showcase was a travelling piece that embraced the dance of wind and light. During this year’s Milan Art Week, preceding Milan Design Week, FLOWAIR showcased three installation pieces in spontaneous pop-up displays at various key locations in Milan. BASE Cultural Centre, marking the showcase’s last destination during the design week, reflected Maurer's commitment to crafting site-specific exhibitions.
The trumpet-like forms guided the visitors through the inner courtyard, up the fire escape, and onto the roof of the BASE cultural centre. Towering up to 10 metres, FLOWAIR’s elements altered the perception of scale, recalling a sense of miniaturised design. These flower-like forms alternately inflated and contracted by consuming wind energy to produce frolic movements of dance, thereby, ‘rendering visible the invisible flow of air,’ as per the Munich-based company.
The concept and narrative behind Ingo Maurer's thought-provoking artwork were intentionally left open for visitors to interpret and become part of the light installation with a stimulated awareness of the wind. The project was however taken down sooner than anticipated due to sudden squalls over the area.
Stay tuned with STIR's coverage of Milan Design Week 2024 which showcases the best of exhibitions, studios, designers, installations, brands and events to look out for. Explore EuroCucina and all the design districts—Fuorisalone, 5vie Design Week, Isola Design Week, Brera Design District and Porta Venezia Design District.
(Text by Simran Gandhi, intern at STIR)
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