Marcel Wanders

“In my interior products, I use different crafts to make it happen. I believe that people can connect

with each other through objects and beauty. Design is, in my opinion not only a profession for

creating affective functional objects to be circulated through a classical international distribution

system. I also see more exclusive custom-made designs, where dreams can come true.”

I want to create the kinds of things that if the house burns down you want to run and save.”

L

anotorietàdiMarcelWandersincampoartistico

inizia con la sua iconica Knotted Chair, progettata

per Droog Design nel 1996. Negli anni a seguire

collabora con i più importanti produttori europei di design

contemporaneo tra cui, tra decine d’altri: Alessi, Flos, KLM,

Swarovski, Puma, Droog Design e Moooi di cui è anche

art director e co-proprietario. Tra i più significativi progetti

d’architettura e interior design il Kameha Grand Hotel di

Zurigo e Bonn, il Mondrian South Beach a Miami, le Quasar

Istanbul Residences e il flagship store di Villa Moda in Bahrain.

Nel 2012, il lancio del suo progetto d’interior finora più

audace: l’Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht Hotel, ospitato

nell’ex biblioteca pubblica della città e salutato come una sorta

di “Alice in Amsterdam”. Con queste premesse, non è una

sorpresa che il New York Times l’abbia soprannominato il

“Lady Gaga del Design” o che Business Week l’abbia inserito

trai25leaderdelcambiamentoinEuropa.Moltideilavoridi

Wanders sono entrati a far parte delle più importanti collezioni

di design nel mondo come il Museum of Modern Art di New

YorkeSanFrancisco,ilVictoria&AlbertMuseumdiLondra

e lo Stedelijk Museum di Amsterdam dove nel gennaio 2014,

ha aperto la sua prima grande retrospettiva “Marcel Wanders:

Pinned Up at the Stedelijk”.

M

arcelWandersfirstbecamefamousasanartist

with his iconic Knotted Chair, designed for

Droog Design in 1996. In the years that followed,

he worked with some of the most important contemporary

design producers in Europe, including (among many others),

Alessi, Flos, KLM, Swarovski, Puma, Droog Design and

Moooi, of which he is art director and co-owner. Among the

most significant architecture and interior design projects are

the Kameha Grand Hotel in Zurich and Bonn, the Mondrian

South Beach Hotel in Miami, the Quasar Istanbul Residences

and the Villa Moda flagship store in Bahrain. In 2012 his most

daring interior design project to date was launched - the Andaz

Amsterdam Prinsengracht Hotel (in the city’s former public

library), which was hailed as a sort of “Alice in Amsterdam”.

Considering all the above it comes as no surprise that the New

York Times has nicknamed him the “Lady Gaga of Design” or

thattheBusinessWeekhasincludedhiminthe25leadersof

change in Europe. Many of Wanders’s works have become part

of the most important design collections in the world, such as

theMuseumofModernArtinNewYorkandSanFrancisco,

the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Stedelijk

Museum in Amsterdam, where, in January 2014, he opened his

first great retrospective exhibition “Marcel Wanders: Pinned

Up at the Stedelijk”.

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Marcel Wanders, portrait

(Courtesy Marte Visser)

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