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Touching Tales

Four installations by four international designers on view in two different places in Cologne show the creative possibilities, materials and colors of Alcantara.

For Touching Tales, The Alcantara Experience four maverick studios were invited to ‘experiment’ with Alcantara to create unusual, surprising installations, featured in two different locations in Cologne.

The touching tales of Formafantasma, Moritz Waldemeyer and Anton Alvarez unfold in the Kunsthaus Rhenania in the Rheinauhafen complex, while a surprising installation by Henrik Vibskov welcomes the public at the Fair.

**In apertura**: Moritz Waldemeyer, kayoubi. **Sopra**: Anton Alvarez, New Skids on the Block

The Science Spooner, the installation conceived by the eclectic Danish designer Henrik Vibskov for the fairgrounds, reminds a science lab experience: set inside a kind of rectangular box delimited by a curtain in Alcantara, Vibskov arranges 15 cones, hanging from the ceiling and covered in varying gradations of green. Activated by a motorized mechanism, the cones move slowly up and down, coming to touch a glass vessel filled with a bit of water, creating a singular dripping effect. The LED lights inside the cones emanate from a series of perforations, providing a subtle and bewitching luminosity.

At the Kunsthaus Rhenania, the Italian duo Formafantasma presents Strata, a project that highlights the versatility and strengths of this material through a series of simple elements that evoke different applications for the material, while emphasizing the contrast with other natural materials such as marble, metal and stone.

The project designed by Moritz Waldemeyer, titled kayoubi, focusses on the material’s technological characteristics.The Anglo-German engineer and designer proposes an installation consisting essentially of lampshades. Applying an extra layer of film to a special perforated variant of Alcantara, Waldemeyer creates a texture that, combined with light, transforms the material into something rich and precious. The resulting effect is fascinating, accentuated by a standing screen that surrounds the installation and defines a private, emotional space.

Lastly, the Chilean-Swedish artist Anton Alvarez, in his New Skids on the Block, plays with the variety of colours to create highly original furnishing accessories. Composed of soft sticks featuring a wood and aluminium framework covered with foam and completed with soft Alcantara, his human-scale elements appear to be ‘alive’, like bodies embracing or wrestling with one another.