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On the evening of September 30th the fourth VIENNA DESIGN WEEK has started off in the wonderfully lit Palais Liechtenstein with a grand opening Event, and was, hosted by H.O.M.E., an energetic kick-off for yet another 10 days in Vienna packed with design in all its facets. During the more formal part of the event, the three initiators of the festival, Tulga Beyerle, Thomas Geisler and Lilli Hollein aka the ‘Neigungsgruppe Design’ once more presented this year’s focal points of the festival and above all thanked all the many partners and sponsors that help make this growing international design festival possible year after year. Also the representatives of the principal partners of VIENNA DESIGN WEEK spoke in front of the large audience; Brigitte Jank, president of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, CEO of departure and Waltraud Wolf from the Vienna Tourist Board expressed all their best wishes for the festival 2010 and stressed not only the important role VIENNA DESIGN WEEK plays for Vienna as a lively and culturally rich city but also the role of design as promoter of culture, the economy and in tackling important societal issues such as ecology and sustainability.

Before everyone joined in the Party which had, among other things, fine cocktails by Bombay Sapphire, fizzy Kattus Frizzante sparkling wine and very danceable sounds by Radio Superfly to offer, Andreas Mailath-Pokorny, City Councillor for Culture in Vienna, officially opened the festival. The highlight oft the evening, however, was the opening of the exhibition „Baroque Splendor and Stainless Steel“ in the basement gallery of LIECHTENSTEIN MUSEM. The Museum this year not only hosts the opening event, but has, in collaboration with VIENNA DESIGN WEEK, organized a fine show of contemporary design. Three renowned international design studios, Claesson Koivisto Rune (Stockholm), Olgoj Chorchoj (Prag) und Makkink&Bey (Rotterdam), each contributed a large installation on the theme of table culture. The show also functions as a teaser of the following exhibition "Das Prunkservice des Herzogs Albert von Sachsen-Teschen”, which will be opened in December.
In addition to the already traditional design raffle the evening also had the presentation of the new WIEN PRODUCTS Collection and the award ceremony of the new Rado Young Design Prize to offer to the partying guests which had appeared as numerous as never before.

The aim of VIENNA DESIGN WEEK is to show and enable people to experience the many-faceted creative work in the fields of product, furniture and industrial design as well as experimental design. After three successful festivals yet another exquisite and colourful programme of events will be awaiting the visitors this October. Design has been and is an important field in the production of culture: it shapes our material culture, our everyday life and our consumer world, it influences our lifestyles and fashions and most fundamentally our aesthetic sense and judgements. This wide-ranging impact is a reason both to celebrate design and to examine it critically, and VIENNA DESIGN WEEK has made both of these its mission.

A Platform for Design

In cooperation with many partners – from Vienna museums to production and retail companies to designers from all over the world – the whole of Vienna becomes a platform and showplace of design. VIENNA DESIGN WEEK doesn't have the character of a trade fair but instead offers a variety of venues and approaches specific to Vienna. The festival sets out to be "international but localised", with an abiding interest to cooperate with the flourishing design scenes of Central and Eastern Europe, and certainly beyond. Bringing to Vienna an important international design show every October is another example of the long-due international exchange VIENNA DESIGN WEEK is stimulating.

Time for Experiments

The festival aims to reveal creative and production processes and encourage experimental work on the spot. It also presents and promotes design that in the first instance withdraws from the scheme of utility value and functionality in order to create awareness and pose questions or also simply just to have fun. The exploration of materials, mood values and the interaction between people and objects lie at the centre of design practice and consequently are important points of reference within VIENNA DESIGN WEEK.

International Festival and Viennese Culture Event

With exhibitions, venue-specific installations, theme specials, discussion events, a programme of films and, of course, enough opportunity to party and network, VIENNA DESIGN WEEK is not only an attraction for the international design scene but most explicitly also aims to interest and appeal to a wide public audience of Viennese and visitors to Vienna. This year VIENNA DESIGN WEEK energetically goes into the fourth round taking up a firm place on the international festival scene while being a fixed early-autumn cultural event in Vienna.

We look forward to seeing you at the next VIENNA DESIGN WEEK!