Zurich-based bag manufacturer FREITAG and artist Georg Lendorff are inviting everybody to come along to UNFLUENCER at Ventura Centrale, where they can admit to their design and consumption transgressions and launch a new discussion about good and bad design in the 21st century.:
«Just for once, instead of talking about good design, why don't we take a look at bad design?» That was the question Zurich-based truck tarp bag manufacturer FREITAG asked itself.
A dialog about bad design – and that means all our own flawed ideas – wouldn't just be funnier and more exciting but also more honest and inspirational. After all, none of us are immune to negative forces, constraints, simple errors or delusions. Just the same way there are none of us who
have never bought something stupid, unnecessary and unsustainable against our better judgement.
FREITAG intends to change all that and has teamed up with artist Georg Lendorff to stimulate good discussions about lousy design and other crimes. They're receiving support in this venture from the scenographers at Ortreport.
At the (spatial) center of «UNFLUENCER – De-sinning the Designer» is Lendorff's immersive, walk-in video and light installation. Projections onto thousands of threads hanging from the ceiling cause visitors' and observers' sense of space and time to dissolve and are a refuge for a brief but contemplative respite from the four-day hustle and bustle in Milan, freed of all external influences.In the midst of all this, visitors to the installation can admit their design and consumer sins, either alone and anonymously or in a confidential dialog. And for questions regarding what constitutes bad – and hence confession-worthy – design and consumer habits, the «FREITAG Cyclist Manifesto» provides some useful guidelines.
The Freitag brothers' plea for a cyclical economy, quality and longevity came to be as a result of their «FREITAG Ad Absurdum» exhibition at the Mudac Design Museum in Lausanne. It is intended to be a work in progress, an ongo-ing manifesto for consumer attitudes in the 21st century.
And just to ensure that the discussion regarding defective design and unacceptable consumer habits doesn't fizzle out on the streets of Milan, all designers and consumers leaving the vault can identify themselves as «de-sinned» and are thus instantly recognizable not only as trustworthy individuals to talk to but also as fellow-offenders.