Put together in 1999 by the Vitra Design Museum, shortly after the death of the Danish designer, the extensive retrospective on the life and work of Verner Panteon (1926-1998) is to be shown in Copenhagen. Designs for interiors, furniture, lamps and fabrics made during the forty year career (lasting from the fifties to the nineties) of the great experimenter and innovator (“A less successful experiment is preferable to a beautiful platitude” he often said).

First in line in the diffusion and application of unconventional materials – plastic, Perspex, fibreglass, steel and polyurethane – as well as new technology – the Panton Chair was the first form-moulded chair in plastics without any joints made in 1959-60 to then become one of the icons of pop culture – Panton moved to Basel in 1963, from where his visionary, non-conformist and provocative design (“Sitting down should be like a game” he maintained or “You sit better on a colour you like”) began to conquer the world.

The exhibition, amongst other things, reconstructs the psychedelic passage “Visiona II” (designed in 1970 for Bayer) and moves out of the confines of the museum to invade the café area also decorated with furniture, lamps and fabrics by Panton.

until 21.10.2003
Verner Panton – Vision & Play
Danish Design Center
https://www.ddc.dk