Photographer credit: Julien Lanoo
Brooklyn, London, Singapore, Paris, Chicago, Basel – so reads Virgil Abloh’s most recent passport stamps, so it’s unsurprising that thoughts of home are at the forefront of his mind, and his latest collaboration with Swiss design brand Vitra.
Speaking to Vogue Living at the launch of his exhibition, TWENTYTHIRTYFIVE, at the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany – alongside special edition furniture pieces he’s designed to match – Abloh says: “The aim with TWENTYTHIRTYFIVE was to put together a body of work and define how we could be living in the year 2035. It is a particular amount of time into the future that isn’t too far away. We felt it was important to think about the future in a tangible way.” (Tangible and very, very orange.)
Photographer credit: Joshua Osborne
Coinciding with Design Miami/Basel, TWENTYTHIRTYFIVE is housed in the Zaha Hadid Fire Station on the Vitra Campus until 31 July, and will then travel to the newly opened Vitra New York showroom. Abloh’s vision of the future remains true to form, but there’s been a subtle shift in his style. There’s no ironic air quotes denoting “chairs” or other items, though his signature serial numbers and acerbic use of colour remain. More importantly though, the space feels like home, rather than some dystopian vision.
Photographer credit: Julien Lanoo
Split into two sections, the installation is designed to look like the home of an average teenager. On the “Past/Present” side, the home is viewed through panes of plastic, giving it a nostalgic filter, while over on the side of “Tomorrow”, 2035 takes clear shape. “I think that the younger generation are now exposed to design in new ways. The digital landscape is definitely going to affect our idea of home, but there’s different types of furniture and objects that will become new classics too.”
Photographer credit: Joshua Osborne
On display – and on sale – are three spin-off products, inspired by the rich Vitra archive. 999 ceramic orange blocks cover one wall, doubling up as storage and ensuring the space constantly evolves, with the wall changing shape as each brick is purchased. Abloh also reinterpreted two pieces by famed French industrial designer Jean Prouvé – the Potence wall lamp and the Antony armchair – with orange lacquer finishes. They are limited edition too: only 300 lights and 100 armchairs have been made.
Here, Abloh tells Vogue Living about his vision for our future homes and why he’s not going to stop collaborating anytime soon.
Photographer credit: Julien Lanoo
On looking to the past to see the future
“I have an affinity with working on projects that let me bridge the past to the now. The premise [for this exhibition] was very much looking at how things from your past subconsciously give you an opinion on the future, becoming your baseline. To me, design has the inherent idea of being a bridge from the past, with an eye towards the future.”
Photographer credit: Julien Lanoo
On what the home should be
“Growing up, my home was exactly what you would imagine Midwest, domestic America [to be]. Home now is about being inspired by my surroundings. Even if I’m travelling, the things that I keep, they are very much my sources of inspiration, so [that] when I go to create, I feel fulfilled. That is very much what I hope to do with the objects that I create – a pair of sneakers or a lamp – that they provide inspiration. I think that is what the future of the home should be: an inspiring place.”
Photographer credit: Joshua Osborne
On the future of furniture
“Arguably, we may not need furniture in the future. This idea of reusing things from the past as they are, but putting them in a new setting, could be the new furniture.”
On era-defining designs and his special-edition pieces
“I’m always interested in the resonance that certain designs have over time. The designs of Charles and Ray Eames, for example, they defined that era. Prouvé is sort of an archetype of furniture now, in terms of what people are collecting, and its resale value is obviously high. But it’s also a period in design that resonates now. I like that combination between his aesthetic and his rationale. For me that gave a sense of purity to continue ideas from that basis.”
Photographer credit: Julien Lanoo
On why he’ll never stop collaborating
“[Collaborations are] just a medium for self-expression. It’s like painting, sculpture, photography, essays or poetry: they’re all different means to an end, which is to express an idea. They are all representative objects. My philosophy about fashion, art, design, etc is about an evolution taking place. There is a new generation at play, [so] things should look and feel different. I don’t necessarily consider that disruption, I think of it as evolution.”
Photographer credit: Joshua Osborne
On why he’s obsessed with hazard orange
“I think the colour choice for certain projects indicates its space in a larger context. This colour, hazard orange, is urgent and calls attention to itself by standing out. I liked this idea that it could be in an environment and be like an object, with a function, not just a colour.”
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