piviture above: (c) Swarovski / Edith Dekyndt: The Devil is in the Details
… to be honest I was not the only one. She took part in a public talk with Nicolaus Schafhausen, director of the Kunsthalle Wien, during Vienna Design Week 2014.
Kingdom of glamour
The belgian artist Edith Dekyndt has a passion for textile. Her interest lies in the ephemerality and infinity of the material due to its relative lightness. Recently she used textile again.
In a collaboration with Swarovski, Dekyndt created a huge flag for the company’s shop window in Vienna. More than a flag, the artist created a black flag, allover laced with glittering Swarovski stones. Although the flag weighs 5 kilograms as she remarked, there is again this ephemerality and infinity the artist mentioned in previous works. An infinity which is emphasized by a black flag in a nearly black setting. In her public talk with Nicolaus Schafhausen, she refered to the happiness she feels when observing both, Vienna as a town and Swarovski as a company. The Austrian capitol appears to her like the queen of the baroque and rococo, while the rhinestone company appears to her like the kingdom of glamour. Thus they seem to be inseparable.
While the Austrian capital appears to her like the queen of the baroque and rococo, the street producer appears to her like the kingdom of glamou
Nevertheless, it was not Mozart she was listening to, while working on the project, but the Rolling Stones. Due to this procedere the flag is not a political statement but simply Rock’n Roll. The dramatic staging in the shop window came from an alchemistic impression, she achieved by using dark opaque glass stones as Dekyndt explained.
When Schafhausen wanted to discuss the question whether the boudaries between design and art were blurring, Dekyndt answered that she does not define herself a designer. Subsequently her work for Swarovski is no design.
»The flag is useless like a piece of art. Whereas design usually makes life easier.«
Edith Dekyndt
Hildegard Suntinger
Not for Real 