Prelude 01: a Dialogue at Depot Basel

Rose Etherington | 3 September 2011 1 comment

Nine designers including Florian Hauswirth, Kaspar Hamacher and Max Lipsey furnished a grain-silo-turned-art-space in Basel in a five-day experimental workshop.

Top and above: Max Lipsey

The resulting pieces form the inaugural exhibition at Depot Basel and will remain in use as its infrastructure for forthcoming exhibitions.

Above: Max Lipsey

Camille Blin, Julien Renault, Damien Gernay, Mieke Meijer, Tobias Schäfer and Tristan Cochrane also contributed work.

Above: CamilleBlin and JulienRenault

Prelude 01: a Dialogue is open until 4 August.

Above: CamilleBlin and JulienRenault

Depot Basel is a temporary venue that will host exhibitions, workshops, talks and films for two years, initiated by the Association For Demanding Everyday Culture.

Above: CamilleBlin and JulienRenault

Photographs are by Julien Renault.

The information below is from Depot Basel:

DEPOT BASEL Verein für anspruchsvolle Alltagskultur, Klybeckstrasse 115, CH—4057 Basel
A former grain silo becomes a temporary place for contemporary design

In the former grain silo of the Basel Lagerhaus Gesellschaft, in an area called Erlenmatt - one of the last development areas in Basel - arises a project with the name DEPOT BASEL.

Above: Damien Gernay

The six members of the "Verein für Anspruchsvolle Alltagskultur" engl. "Association For Demanding Everyday Culture" teamed up to establish DEPOT BASEL – a place for contemporary design. All group members have been sourced from different professional backgrounds. As designer, journalist, design theorist and economist, they combine theory and practice and are capable to translate an adequate presentation of design in this self-initiated temporary project.

Above: Damien Gernay

DEPOT BASEL states: “We are not a fair, nor a festival. Not a museum, a showroom or a gallery. We are a temporary place for contemporary design, with the best intentions until 2012”. A depot in a museum or gallery is where currently disused pieces of work are stored, it is on this basis that they are called: DEPOT BASEL. The difference is they show, not store. DEPOT BASEL wants to relocate the ‘hidden’ to the main space. Introduce unacquainted work by various designers, stories of everyday life, commissioned pieces, forgotten objects and want to create absorbing situations for the public.

Above: Damien Gernay

DEPOT BASEL considers design as a craft, where an understanding of materials, processes and users behavior makes a connection. "We are convinced that there is a need to reflect on craft and design and quality and responsibility in design”, says DEPOT BASEL. A hands-on approach will be a starting point for this statement.

Above: Florian Hauswirth

PRELUDE 01 A DIALOGUE

For the first occurrence nine designers were invited to produce pieces in a temporary workshop exclusively for the former silo, which bears the name DEPOT BASEL. They spend 5 days in the location and entered into a dialogue with the building and its distinctive silo structure.

Above: Florian Hauswirth

‘What does the future DEPOT BASEL need to operate as a place for contemporary design’? was the starting point of a dialogue. The designers delivered the answers in form of a unique infrastructure and 21 pieces that form the core of the location for the upcoming year and for upcoming occurrences.

Above: Florian Hauswirth

The opening of DEPOT BASEL and the first presentation of the in-house infrastructure was on Saturday, 27th August 2011. The exhibition runs until Sunday, 4th September 2011 but can be also visited by appointment.

Above: Mieke Meijer

Designers:

Camille Blin
Damien Gernay
Florian Hauswirth
Kaspar Hamacher
Julien Renault
Max Lipsey
Mieke Meijer
Tobias Schäfer
Tristan Cochrane

The nearly 100 year old building will be reutilize innovatively for small-scale and large exhibitions, workshops, panel discussions and film screenings.

Above: Mieke Meijer

Various happenings are already scheduled, but are undisclosed until the next occurrence. DEPOT BASEL thinks that it is important to savour the moment.

Above: Mieke Meijer

With events like Art Basel and Design Miami, the adjacent Vitra Campus and the thriving creative economy, Basel is an adequate location for DEPOT BASEL.