Vitra has unveiled the first images of its collaboration with ubiquitous multihyphenate Virgil Abloh ahead of the pair’s upcoming installation at the furniture maker’s campus and, people, they’re fairly tight. Created in conjunction with Art Basel, which bows just a few miles from Vitra’s Weil am Rhein, Germany HQ, the Vitra c/o Virgil Abloh “TWENTYTHIRTYFIVE” presentation at the company’s Zaha Hadid-designed Fire Station will combine pieces from the manufacturer’s past that resonate with the designer, along with three new works by Abloh himself.
The capsule offering of lighting and seating will bow at Art Basel
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Image courtesy Vitra/Marc Eggimann
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While the installation looks interesting enough, Abloh’s audience of dedicated hypebeasts will find the new chair, lighting fixture, and construction blocks the more clickable, collectable side of Vitra’s efforts here. The “Anthony” chair is a transparent variant on Jean Prouvé’s 1954 work, just as the industrial-looking lamp is a fresh take on another Prouvé piece from 1950. The units have limited runs of 100 and 300 respectively.
The Ceramic Block is, well, a ceramic block. Painted in the same orange that marks this collection as well as the Louis Vuitton capsule line for the designer’s ongoing “Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech” exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the limited run of 999 numbered blocks are bound to become collector’s items if similar past products are any indication.
Vitra’s installation, the new pieces, and all those lovely blocks will be on view from June 12 through July 31 and resurface in New York City this fall.