Celebrating its fifth year, Design Miami/ once again saw a marked increase in visitor figures, up by 4.5% on last year with a record 23,000 attendees. Outstanding gallery presentations, ambitious and highly successful cultural programming and a Designer of the Year who really resonated with Design Miami’s audience all combined to mark a vintage year for the fair.
“Design Miami/ this year was perhaps our most energetic edition since we began five years ago,” Design Miami/ Director Ambra Medda comments. “It felt as if a younger generation had taken hold of design, with gallerists, our own programming and visitors being prepared to take risks, whether by collaborating with younger, lesser-known designers or investing in them. There was a strong sense of everyone participating and bringing something creative to the table.”
Attendance at this year’s Design Miami/ was distinguished by a highly design-literate audience characterised by serious collectors, curators, museum acquisition committees, architects, designers, journalists and celebrities including Victor & Rolf, John McEnroe, Elle McPherson and Naomi Campbell. Gallerists noted a particularly high turn out of young, American collectors in their 30s and 40s, many of whom came from New York, as well as many Latin American collectors, architects and designers.
Sales were cautious but strong, with highlights including MOSS Gallery selling three of Maarten Baas’ Grandfather clocks, at $100,000 each, and Ornamentum selling Ted Noten’s UZI Suitcase, worth $85,000, within ten minutes of the opening. Many of the galleries reported strong interest and enquiries from museums from the US as well as Europe and China.
This year’s gallery presentations were particularly bold and lively, with gallerists willing to take chances with expressive and extremely high quality exhibits. Paul Kasmin, as a first time participant, fitted in seamlessly with an exceptional stand entirely devoted to new work by Mattia Bonetti. Meanwhile long-term collaborator Galerie Patrick Seguin, which has participated in every edition of the fair, offered a striking and conceptually daring film-based installation in which three actual houses, designed by Jean Prouvé and located in Europe, were for sale.
This year’s Designer of the Year, 31 year-old Maarten Baas, was a highlight of the fair, expressing the youthful energy which infused this year’s edition. His exhibition presented the first ever opportunity to view work from all his different series, together with entirely new pieces, which were exhibited alongside quirky vignettes of his inspirations. A further two spaces were given to actors who performed Baas’s ‘Real Time Clock’ in both the analog and digital versions, with the actors literally marking time at minute intervals.
Design Miami/ hosted its most ambitious and extensive cultural programming ever, with a broad range of daring exhibitions, installations, performances, collaborations and even a scent. Particular highlights included the Design Talks, hosted in a room decorated by students from the New York School of Interior Design, in which a distinguished group of renowned collectors and legendary designers discussed some of the central themes of this year’s fair, notably the important relationship between patrons and designers in engendering bold new work. Workshop Workshop meanwhile presented a very concrete expression of Design Miami/ as a forum for design, with its experimental and interactive zine-making workshop which took inspiration from the content and life of the fair. The result was an extraordinary stand where the directors of museums happily mingled with students creating their own ‘artworks’, while poet P. Scott Cunningham and artist Jim Drain immortalized events on a typewriter and printer respectively, and artist Graham Hudson added ‘constructed’ chaos to the space with layers of refashioned found objects. A further highlight every evening was the Design Performances featuring the energetic band OK GO and their exquisite Gibson guitars, which had been customized by the technologically pioneering designer Moritz Waldemeyer in collaboration with FENDI. Each instrument was elaborately configured with LED lasers that projected the music onto a wall and covered in FENDI materials, beautifully applied by FENDI’s renowned artisans in Italy.
Striking installations such as Tom Dixon’s collaboration with Veuve Cliquot, in which mesmerizing chandeliers made from Veuve Cliquot boxes were given away to visitors at the end of the fair and Max Lamb’s monumental “Shelter” installation located at the fair’s entrance, whose nooks and crannies visitors were quick to hide in and explore, were just some examples of the dynamic interactions that took place between visitors, designers and installations.
“This year’s edition of Design Miami/ really marks a coming of age for collectable design,” Design Miami/ Associate Director Wava Carpenter comments. “There was a fear, articulated in many quarters in 2008 that interest in collecting design would disappear as a result of the recession. But our latest edition of Design Miami/ has proved that design collecting is here to stay, and as a result we’ve seen a resurgent confidence among both gallerists and collectors.”
The fifth anniversary of Design Miami/ was characterised by a willingness to try new ideas and avoid established formulas. The resulting energy and confidence that marked Design Miami/ 2009 offers the international design community an inspiring prospect for the next five years.
GENERAL SHOW METRICS
- Attendees 23,000 up 4.5% from last year.
- Sales were cautious but strong, with highlights including MOSS Gallery selling three of Maarten Baas’ Grandfather clocks, at $100,000 each, and Ornamentum selling Ted Noten’s UZI Suitcase, worth $85,000, within ten minutes of the opening.
- Many of the galleries reported strong interest and enquiries from museums from the US as well as Europe and China.
Notables in Attendance:
Christian Louboutin
Silvia Venturini Fendi
Pharrell Williams
Tom Dixon
Rene Kamm
Sam Keller
Nadja Swarovski
Naomi Campbell
Maarten Baas
Adam Lindemann
George Lindemann
Mortiz Waldemeyer
OK Go
Lee Mindel
Mattia Bonetti
Gaetano Pesce
Al Eiber
Libby Sellers
Sabina Belli (Moet Hennessy)
Victor & Rolf
Andre Saraiva (Le Baron)
Publications Represented at the Fair:
- More than 475 journalists registered and attended the fair from over 25 countries worldwide.
SPONSORSHIPs:
Design Miami/ 2009 was privileged to have six sponsors:
- HSBC Private Bank, principal sponsor of the fair created a unique on-site lounge featuring Arik Levy.
- Audi, the exclusive automotive partner of Design Miami/ provided the fair’s VIP guests with a fleet of chauffeur driven Audis. They had an on-site lounge and also simultaneously debuted their new Audi A8 with the campaign the Art of Progress and a schedule of activities at the Audi Pavilion located on Miami Beach.
- Swarovski Crystal Palace created an installation by Greg Lynn featuring 4 massive sails using functional sailing materials and 1.5 million Swarovski crystals.
- FENDI sponsored the Design Performances program, which featured Moritz Waldemeyer and OK Go. The Performances were attended by approximately 75 – 120 visitors each day.
- Veuve Cliquot sponsored the fair, providing champagne and presenting an installation of a custom designed chandelier made from the distinctive yellow Veuve Clicquot boxes, and designed by Tom Dixon.
- Modern Magazine, the latest title from Brant Publications, sponsored the fair and presented their latest issue. It was available at a dedicated on site table in the fair and in the Audi cars.
- Cappellini and Poltrona Frau provided the furniture for the Media Lounge, Press Office, Exhibitor Office, and the benches outside of the Temporary Structure.
For more information, please visit www.designmiami.com.