Reflecting Light
To mark their fortieth anniversary, the two designers, founders and managing directors Jean-Marc da Costa and Manfred Wolf are presenting their success story in the form of a retrospective with the speaking title "IN SERIEN – 40 Jahre serien.lighting. Licht. Form. Material." The path was not always straightforward, as the audience – consisting of experts and long-time companions of the company – learnt in a refreshing talk. Markus Frenzl, Professor of Design and Media Theory at Munich University of Applied Sciences, moderated the conversation. Alternating between highly technical discussions and chatting about inside stories, da Costa and Wolf recapped their initial attempts, lengthy experiments and failures – but above all, clever ideas, lucky coincidences and successful design, which has always been led by their idea of quality and aesthetics. In the beginning, they were primarily concerned with the materiality, not so much with guiding the light perfectly, the two summarise.
The fact that the staging of light has become their expertise and is still their passion was clear from every sentence and ultimately also from the convincing exhibition design: it was based on a concept that Manfred Wolf had conceived for one of the company's trade fair participations and which aimed to counteract the traditional heavy trade fair construction. In a grid-shaped display architecture, constructed from black square tubes, seven by seven cuboids each provide space for one luminaire design. A total of 44 identical pedestrals honour the selected exhibits equally. The architectural rhythm, the many points of light and the countless guests transformed the exhibition space into a kind of labyrinthine hall of mirrors that dazzlingly presents the diverse range of works. On the outside walls, screens and other objects provide a deeper insight into projects, special editions and details of the company's history.
A fortieth birthday should be celebrated in style! No wonder more than 350 guests invited by serien.lighting and Stylepark headed to the ground floor after the more formal part, where the Emma Metzler provided the perfect location for an exuberant party – in proper style with silver tinsel, exquisite tartare rolls and music from the eighties.
IN SERIEN – 40 Jahre serien.lighting
Licht. Form. Material.
3 to 24 March 2024
Museum Angewandte Kunst
Schaumainkai 17
60594 Frankfurt
Opening hours:
Opening: 2 March 2024, 6 pm
Tuesday, Thursday to Sunday 10 am - 6 pm
Wednesday 10-20 h
