Of course it wasn't a UFO at DMY Berlin
Oh but how we laughed.
The structure was the so-called "Tape Installation" by the Austrian/Croatian design team For Use/Numen. First presented at the 2009 Vienna Design Week the installation was in Berlin as advertising and an invitation for the 2010 Vienna Design Week.
Which makes it all the more amusing that it won a DMY Award.
In Vienna it was an original installation, and importantly an installation in context that demonstrated to visitors what can be achieved by taking a brave approach to material selection and interior design solutions.
In Berlin it was a pastiche of such, slung as it was between a load of scaffolding poles and positioned at the "entrance" to the Tempelhof airfield; just as one would expect to find a decorative ice swan welcoming guests to an ambassador's summer garden party in 1974.
And at this junction we'll ignore the environmental ethics of using so much plastic tape to produce a temporary sculpture.
When one considers the space that was available at Tempelhof, there must have been more than enough opportunities to produce a truly prize worthy installation and one which would have allowed the judges to have seen the lauded "experimental bravery".
Because quite where they saw that in the Berlin installation, is a mystery.
And so maybe our UFO comparison wasn't so far removed from the truth.
Unlikely First-placed Object.
