A&W Designer(s) of the Year 2013: Ronan + Erwan Bouroullec

It being January, IMM Cologne once again provided the backdrop for the presentation of the A&W Designer of the Year Award. Following on from Tokujin Yoshioka in 2011 and Patrica Urquiola in 2012 the 2013 accolade went to everyone’s favourite Bretons Ronan And Erwan Bouroullec

In addition to the undoubted kudos of winning, as part of the award the Brothers Bouroullec are also being honoured in an exhibition at the Kölnischer Kunstverein.

Featuring an overview of their more recent works the exhibition can’t be called a retrospective, for that it is too small, too incomplete; however, it does provide a nice opportunity to compare their work for companies as varied as Vitra, Magis, Kvadrat or Lignet Roset and so examine their approach to and recurring motifs in their work.

For our part we spent most of our time cursing the exhibition design concept that saw the straight lines interrupted with curtains; thus making it impossible to get any sort of decent long, all-encompassing, shot.
Only in conversation with Erwan Bouroullec did we discover the troublesome textiles were in fact their latest product for Kvadrat – an off the peg and ready to hang curtain system.

They were still in the way. But at least we knew why!

We decided to spare the brothers the trauma of another interview with us, they’ve suffered enough over the years, but here a few impressions from the exhibition

If you happen to be in Cologne the exhibition can be viewed until Sunday January 20th at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, Hahnenstr.6, 50667 Köln