ILUMINAR

'The Paradise of Bulbs'

From darkness to light, and back again...
ILUMINAR is not a design exhibition about light; it is a light exhibition about design...
250 masterpieces of lightning design signed by more than 100 different designers and artists are presented in a spectacular and sensitive scenography by the leading Brazilian designers Fernando and Humberto Campana.

The purpose of this exhibition is to engage the visitor into a direct experimentation of light. The scenario, from darkness to light and back again, is inspired by the rhythm of the day, as well as seasons, and life ("Mehr Licht" are Goethe very famous last words).
The exhibition is divided in 3 major parts:
The Milky Way presents lamps reducing the light to small spots, as well as lamps directly inspired from Space universe, Phantoms and Ectoplasms gathers the lamps that become luminous corpses, in the line of Isamu Noguchi's Akari, and finally The Paradise of Bulbs presents the lamps in which the bulb "triumphs".
In each of these sections, a very special place is dedicated to the considerable art of Ingo Maurer, whom is not only the 'unique' designer to have dedicated his entire life to light, but almost one of the very rare designers (if not the only one) who created lamps that explore such a large range of lightning attitudes. Several creations by Ingo Maurer are presented all over the exhibition, in which some never seen confrontations takes place (like Willydilly, Lampshade by Man Ray and Flamme by Serge Mouille). Moreover, Ingo Maurer created 3 specific installations related to each major part of the exhibition.

Sarah Chiarella Vignon & Stéphane Corréard, curators

Exhibition ILUMINAR - Design da Luz, 1920-2004
Foundation Armando Alvares Penteado http://www.faap.br, São Paulo (Brazil)
February 18th - May 2nd 2004

Pictures: courtesy Foundation Armando Alvares Penteado.