Harry Thaler | LICHTKAMMER

Swing  Design Gallery is proud to present Lichtkammer, curated by Antonella Palladino, a personal exhibition of the designer from Alto Adige Harry Thaler. Thaler’s research stems from a confrontation with the elements and materials that have become symbols of identity of a certain place or time. He begins with traditional genius loci and know-how to then renew the forms of design. In the form of direct quotes from rural life or reinterpretations of traditional items of furniture, the “old” has the chance of a second life within the new. The exhibition in Benevento was created by the link the designer was able to create with the Campania region and especially with the Royal Site of San Leucio, since 1997 UNESCO heritage. Able of combining industrial design and craftsmanship, often a simple idea is the point of origin of his projects; like for example a square of silk and the many combinations it can provide. Lichtkammer develops the idea of the art gallery as a “box” of wonders, Wunderkammer. The main characters are the lustre of precious fabrics from the antic factory of San Leucio and the lamps covered by them. This is the first time that Harry Thaler chooses to work with such a “precious” and at the same time traditional material. Staying in line with his focus on salvage and sustainable consumption, he uses its waste and scraps of precious fabrics such as damask, lampas and liserè. The celebration of light, also gives a natural reference to the Century of Enlightment, in which the factory of San Leucio was born. Starting from the square shape of the tile floor the designer has created a series of lamps made of steel by using a manual folding system, coated with scraps of silk. The many boxes of light are left open to ideas and they themselves can be found in one big box of space, the gallery. His artistic signature can be found in the exhibition and it is one of his best known works Barrel, created as a result to the oil crisis of 2007. The chair was made by compressing barrels of oil and which were then covered and ennobled by the silk lining. A quote from his own past in a new light. The past never dies. Everything always has a second life. The exhibition was produced entirely in the region, as the designer wanted to build a link with his surroundings during his stay. The prestigious textile industry Fratelli Bologna e Marcaccio, one of the few that still have kept the antic eighteenth-century string frames, provided the textures that made this project possible.