Swarovski to debut new edition of Fredrikson Stallard’s ‘Prologue’ sculpture

8,000 blue Swarovski crystal droplets elegantly set within a galvanised steel frame will create a dazzling installation at Design Shanghai. The four metre diameter sculpture will greet visitors to Design Shanghai as they enter the courtyard of the Shanghai Exhibition Centre.

Working with acclaimed London-based designers, Patrik Fredrikson and Ian Stallard of Fredrikson Stallard, Swarovski, one of Design Shanghai’s sponsors, has commissioned a special edition of the ‘Prologue’ sculpture in celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of the Swarovski Waterschool program in 2015.

Nadja Swarovski, Member of the Swarovski Executive Board, commented:

“We are delighted to continue our ongoing collaboration with Fredrikson Stallard with a life-affirming new edition of ‘Prologue’, created to celebrate the 15th anniversary of our Waterschool program. Ian and Patrik’s brilliantly re-imagined ‘Prologue’ draws its inspiration from this precious resource, elevating the story of water through creativity.”

The Swarovski Waterschool program aims to inform young people about the importance of clean water and so far has educated 196,000 students in 2,600 schools, across four countries.

As well as being an avid devotee to community outreach, Swarovski is an ardent supporter of the arts and has collaborated with further acclaimed designers such as Ron Arad, Tom Dixon, Ross Lovegrove, Arik Levy, Yves Behar, John Pawson and Zaha Hadid. Additionally, Swarovski has also worked with many leading Chinese designers, some of whom will be exhibiting at Design Shanghai 2015, such as Song Tao, Li Naihan and Shi Jianmin.

Patrik Fredrikson and Ian Stallard both trained at Central Saint Martins College in London and began collaborating in 1995. The duo are famous for their dynamic works that combine traditional arts with the avant-garde, and have previously worked with Swarovski on multiple installations, including Pandora (2007) and Iris (2011).

Jamie Hayon.

International speakers confirmed for Design Shanghai’s AD China Design Forum

At Design Shanghai 2015, the world’s leading designers, architects, curators and inventors will share their experiences and influences on an international platform for talks and debates.

The AD China Design Forum, curated by Aidan Walker, focuses on Transition and Transformation. The programme is designed to explore the specific transitional and transformational activity in a maturing Chinese design industry, touching on topics such as the politics of design, craft, materiality, urbanism, technology and art.

To create well-rounded, informative conversations and debates, the programme includes key opinion formers from the global architecture and design community, including Marcel Wanders, Jaime Hayon in Association with Fritz Hansen, Arik Levy, Lee Broom, Aric Chen, Jérôme Sans, Neri & Hu, and WGSN’s Lisa White.

Titles currently under preparation for the forum sessions include:

• ‘The Design of the Art District – The new Urbanism’ –Aric Chen and Neville Mars
• ‘The New Age of Design’ – Marcel Wanders
• ‘The Art of Décor’ – Lee Broom
• ‘Design, Art, Signs and Mysteries’ – Arik Levy
• ‘Cross Cultural Architecture’ – Design MVW; Margaux Lhermitte, NAÇO Architectures
• ‘A New Chinese Modernism’ – AD China; Neri & Hu

Neri Hu. Photo: Andrew Rowat.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Mark Boddington, founder of Silverlining
• Lee Broom, founder of Lee Broom Design
• Alan Chan, founder of Alan Chan Design
• Aric Chen, Curator of Design & Architecture at M+ West Kowloon
• Andrea Destefanis and Filippo Gabbiani, founders of Kookai Studios
• Patrik Fredrikson and Ian Stallard, founders of Fredrikson Stallard
• Katy Ghahremani, Director at Make Architects
• Qu Guangci, founder of X+Q Art
• Jaime Hayon, designer, in Association with Fritz Hansen,
• Sebastian Herkner, designer for Rosenthal
• Eric Lee, Ritchie Chan, Zhang Zhoujie, Nicole Teng and Jackson Aw, presented by ANOMALY
• Sharon Leece, Editor-at-Large at AD China
• Arik Levy, founder of Arik Levy Studio
• Margaux Lhermitte, Executive Director at NAÇO Architectures
• Professor Long Xiang, Chairman and Professor of the Department of Sculpture at the China Academy of Arts
• Neville Mars, Principal at MARS Architects
• Xu Ming and Virginie Moriette, founders of Design MVW
• Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, founders of Neri & Hu
• Ou Ning, designer, curator, activist
• Jérôme Sans, curator, author and polemicist
• Pavlo Schtakleff, founder and Managing Director at Sé London
• Song Tao, founder of ZIZAOSHE
• Dr John C Taylor, British inventor and horologist
• Eric Touchaleaume, founder of Gallery 54, presenting Maison des Sinistres for Bally
• Marcel Wanders, founder of Marcel Wanders Studio
• Xu Wang, Editor-in-Chief at AD China
• Lisa White, Creative Director at WGSN
• Dean Winter, Area Director of Operations for Swire Hotels
• Lou Yongqui, Dean of College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, China
• Wang Yuyang, digital artist

Design Shanghai 2015 will feature some of the world’s most established brands, exciting up-and-coming designers from China and abroad, internationally renowned galleries, and installations.

Design Shanghai

27 – 30 March 2015

Shanghai Exhibition Centre

Jingan District, Shanghai, China

Website: www.designshowshanghai.com