The Minister of Culture went on/off with furniture students
VIA University College’s furniture students exhibits in Milan. They were visited by Culture Minister Mette Bock, who was fond of the theme of this year’s exhibition.
It looks like an ordinary modern armchair, but when you sit in it, gentle relaxation music takes place in the body. A lamp is shining lightly, but when mobile phones are put into it, it lights up stronger. Or was there a weave that stresses the brain as your fingers weave loose?
11 students from VIA’s furniture designer study are in Milan today to show what they can and the theme revolves around the great art of being on and offline at the right times. After all that, they have chosen a subject that awakes both attention and reverberation.
Culture Minister Mette Bock (LA) visited Milan and the students Wednesday afternoon and she was very excited about what she saw.
“I think it’s an incredibly challenging and exciting topic. I am self-educated in philosophy where you put the very big basic questions here in life, and in the digitized world there are a lot of dilemmas about being on and off. The projects here show that there are lots of opportunities to launch new products on a new era in beautiful design, so it’s been a great experience to see the exhibition”, she said after a tour and talk with each designer.
Massive international interest
Education and Research Director at VIA Design, René Foli, is impressed that his students can promote innovative products that receive praise and recognition – not only from the Minster but also from a large part of the total 350.000 guests who appear by until Sunday, passing by on their way through the great Milan fair.
Earlier this year, VIA has exhibited in an area of the big design city, which is reserved for upcoming brands and schools, but this year, VIA has moved into the major exhibition halls, where buyers, talent scouts and designers from around the world also find themselves.
“We stand here with 11 furniture students and a team from our branding study, and it makes me both happy and proud to experience that they get so much attention. I am deeply impressed with their designs. The theme is more relevant than ever and that they can create so many different products that everyone all makes sense, is so well thought,” he states.
René Foli would like to house the many designs once they have been taken home from Milan again. But he will by all accounts have to fight with the Minister of Culture on them.
