DEPOT BASEL SPACE


Damien Gernay


Florian Hauswirth



Camille Blin and Julien Renault


Kaspar Hamacher


Max Lipsey


Mieke Meijer


Tristan Cochrane


Tobias Schäfer



Depot Basel: AUFTAKT 01 – INFRASTRUKTUR

For the first occurrence nine designers were invited to produce pieces in a temporary workshop exclusively for the former silo, which bears the name DEPOT BASEL. They spend 5 days in the location and entered into a dialogue with the building and its distinctive silo structure. ‘What does the future DEPOT BASEL need to operate as a place for contemporary design’? was the starting point of a dialogue. The designers delivered the answers in form of a unique infrastructure and 21 pieces that form the core of the location for the upcoming year and for upcoming occurrences.


Basel, 18th August 2011 - In the former grain silo of the „Basel Lagerhaus Gesellschaft“ (BLG), in an area called Erlenmatt - one of the last development areas in Basel, arises a project with the name ‘DEPOT BASEL’.
The six members of the "Verein für Anspruchsvolle Alltagskultur" engl. "Association For Demanding Everyday Culture" teamed up to establish‚ ‘DEPOT BASEL – a place for contemporary design’. All group members have been sourced from different professional backgrounds. As designer, journalist, design theorist and economist, they combine theory and practice and are capable to translate an adequate presentation of design in this self-initiated temporary project.

DEPOT BASEL states: “We are not a fair, nor a festival. Not a museum, a showroom or a gallery. We are a temporary place for contemporary design, with the best intentions until 2012”. A depot in a museum or gallery is where currently disused pieces of work are stored, it is on this basis that they are called: DEPOT BASEL. The difference is they show, not store. DEPOT BASEL wants to relocate the ‘hidden’ to the main space. Introduce unacquainted work by various designers, stories of everyday life, commissioned pieces, forgotten objects and want to create absorbing situations for the public.

DEPOT BASEL considers design as a craft, where an understanding of materials, processes and users behavior makes a connection. "We are convinced that there is a need to reflect on craft and design and quality and responsibility in design”, says DEPOT BASEL. A hands-on approach will be a starting point for this statement.

PRELUDE 01 A DIALOGUE
For the first occurrence nine designers were invited to produce pieces in a temporary workshop exclusively for the former silo, which bears the name DEPOT BASEL. They spend 5 days in the location and entered into a dialogue with the building and its distinctive silo structure. ‘What does the future DEPOT BASEL need to operate as a place for contemporary design’? was the starting point of a dialogue. The designers delivered the answers in form of a unique infrastructure and 21 pieces that form the core of the location for the upcoming year and for upcoming occurrences.

The opening of DEPOT BASEL and the first presentation of the in-house infrastructure was on Saturday, 27th August 2011.

Photos: Matylda Krzykowski