Vito Acconci founded the Brooklyn-based Acconci Studio in 1988 as a next step in his creative practice, which began in the 1960s in the realms of concrete poetry, installation and conceptual art.
"Acconci Studio is dedicated to production in the realms of architecture and design, where there is the greatest possibility to impact everyday living, to surprise, challenge, and enchant people as they go about their lives," states Design Miami on their choice. "The comingling of material and ideas to expand the definition of function and to uncover higher purposes for our built environment positions Acconci Studio at the vanguard of design discourse today."
For this year's commission, Acconci Studio will produce the Klein-Bottle Playground, which was originally developed for the humanitarian "Art for the World" program. Acconci Studio's contribution was inspired by the German mathematician Felix Klein, who expanded the concept of a Moebius strip into a structure called "Klein Bottle" in which there is no identifiable inside or outside — one surface flows continuously into the other. Acconci Studio has transformed this mathematical construct into a playground, in which a series of tubes extend out from and into a central sphere, such that children can climb in, through and on top. When installed in the Miami Design District, the Klein-Bottle Playground will provide the first public area in the neighbourhood dedicated to children.
