IMM Cologne 2013 & Passagen 2013. Preview

Back in the day the gentle flapping and choral honking of a snow goose skein heading south provided a comforting, aural background to the approaching winter. It meant our year was coming to an end and we could slowly wind down and enter a state of semi-hibernation.

These days we dread the approaching Hitchcock cliche. The unrelenting, tuneless screeching reminding us it is time to decide: Should we travel to IMM Cologne in January? Really?

And much like the migrating goose always follows the same route, so to does our decision making process adhere to a well worn path.

Initially we always decide no, it’s not worth it.

Then in mid-December we panic that maybe, just maybe, this year will be excellent and we really should attend. And so frantically start booking hotels.

Consequently, and somewhat predictably, in a couple of days we head off to the banks of the Rhein for IMM Cologne 2013 and the parallel Passagen 2013.

While the process leading to the final decision may be the same every year, the reasoning is always different.

IMM Cologne

2013 sees the return of Vitra to IMM Cologne after a three year absence. While we’re not expecting anything radically new from Weil am Rhein, we are curious to see not only how Vitra present themselves but how the rest of the exhibitors react to their presence. Few brands dominate the European contemporary designer furniture market quite like Vitra and while many IMM exhibitors were unquestionably glad not to have had to share a stage with them of late, most will also hope to benefit from Vitra’s unparallelled ability to attract buyers and journalists.

A further returnee for IMM Cologne 2013 is Wilde+Spieth. If we’re honest we’re not entirely sure how long it is since Wilde+Spieth last exhibited at IMM but in decades of yore they were an important feature, representing as they do the work of Germany’s most important mid-20th century furniture architect Egon Eiermann.

And for their 2013 return Eiermann is also in the centre-point of the Wilde+Spieth presentation with four Eiermann chair designs – the SE 68, SE 68 SU, SBG 197 R  and SE 42 – being unveiled in four new colours from the Le Corbusier “Les Couleurs” collection.

A development which obviously stinks of “lifestyle marketing”; but which may also help make the Eiermann canon more accessible to a new generation of consumers. Something which, in general terms, can only be applauded.

As far as we can remember the last manufacturer to experiment with presenting furniture design classics in new hues from Le Corbusier was Cassina when they released a series of Le Corbusiers’ own works in previously unreleased colours.

Consequently Alanis Morissette would no doubt find it “ironic” that this year Cassina will be absent from IMM Cologne, choosing instead to concentrate on launching their new showroom in Cologne’s terribly gentrified Neustadt Nord. As part of the Poltrona Frau Group’s “Design Village Cologne” they will be presenting new works from Piero Lissoni, Luca Nichetto and Charlotte Perriand. The works from the later being, with all probability, new-ish rather then new in the classic, biblical, sense.

And in general outwith the marketing twaddle heavy atmosphere of the Cologne Fair grounds, there are numerous events that interested us enough to force us to book a hotel.

SE 68 by Egon Eiermann for Wilde+Spieth. Launched at IMM Cologne 1952. And 61 years later it will be "relaunched" in 4 new colours

As is tradition the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln have organised a special exhibition to coincide with IMM. Following on from last years somewhat disappointing “From Aalto to Zumthor Furniture by Architects” we have high hopes for “Isn’t it romantic? Contemporary Design balancing between Poetry and Provocation”. Curated by Vienna Design Week Director Tulga Beyerle “Isn’t it romantic” seeks to explore contemporary understandings of “romantic”. Whereas in 1807 William Wordsworth may have eased his pensive mood with thoughts of dancing daffodils, Tulga Beyerle’s hypothesis is that today’s troubled urban romantic is more likely to turn to design objects which through their form and material speak to something deep within us. We’ll let you know.

Elsewhere the A&W Designer of the Year Award 2013 goes to Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, which means we can look forward to a nice, compact retrospective of their furniture designs in the accompanying exhibition; the Unger Archiv are presenting a special exhibition devoted to one of the most underrated of all underrated design classic, Alvar Aalto’s Stool 60. And we don’t even want to think about the joy the ever genial Martin Neuhaus is promising with his latest lighting project. We’ve not seen it, but if our expectations aren’t met the pain will be crushing.

Despite the above, and numerous other interesting sounding events, the allure of IMM Cologne remains thin.

IMM Cologne itself remains for us a troublesome event. And we’re pretty much resigned to the fact that it will remain so.

IMM Cologne exists for the mass market. For a market dominated by faceless manufacturers selling faceless products they feel reflect some current, and economically expedient trend amongst a faceless public. And while the Passagen festival seems to get bigger every year, much of that growth is due to furniture retailers organising manufacturer sponsored in-store “exhibitions” of existing product lines rather than genuinely interesting shows of new, design led, projects.

But because the new, design led projects are there, and because manufactures such as Lampert, Müller Möbelfabrikation or e15 use IMM Cologne to launch new products………

The snow goose has to fly south. It can’t help it.
We don’t have to travel to Cologne. We feel we should.

In the coming weeks we’ll let you know in just how far the decision was correct.

IMM Cologne 2013. Will it be a fair to celebrate..... ?