Swiss Design Award at Emily Carr – The opening in pictures

Guests at the Opening Reception

 

 

The curator's speech by Heidi Wegener

 

TV man Mass with Juliet, Urs and Vince

 

Group picture

Swiss Design Award at Emily Carr – The panel discussion

The panelists: Andres Wanner, Heidi Wegener, Christian Blyt, Jonathan Aitken, Sandra Kaufmann (from right to left)

Swiss Design Award at Emily Carr – The installation in pictures

Moving the crates to the right spot: Heidi, Tara and Yannis

 

 

 

The final setup: Riccarda, Rachel, Sandra and her friend

Swim Team of Lugano Nuoto in Vancouver

Swimmers and coaches with visitor at the Aquatic Centre

Over the long Easter weekend sixteen students from the Lugano Nuoto swim club together with two coaches travelled to Vancouver for a training camp. The team members and the coaches met with the West Vancouver Otter swim club, a local swim team, who also kindly hosted them during their stay.

The team enjoyed their days training, sightseeing, and enjoying the big city ambience of Vancouver during Spring.

Acting Consul General, Hans-Peter Willi, had the opportunity to meet up with the swimmers, the coaches Sissi Stolz and Jurek Czaplicki from Lugano and Janusz Kaczmarek from West Vancouver Otter swim club at the Vancouver Aquatic Centre during one of their training sessions.

For infos about Lugano Nuoto please visit: www.luganonuoto.ch/nuoto/nuoto.php

Swiss Mountain Guides on Tour

After the official opening of the main exhibition in Vancouver early 2010 the touring exhibition Swiss Guides: Shaping Mountain Culture in Western Canada, took off on its Canadian tour with much success and vigor.

 In June 2010 it was met in Golden, BC by an enthusiastic crowd which hosted an outdoor reception that was well attended by more than 100 guests including then Consul General of Switzerland, Walter Deplazes. By September 2010 the exhibit moved to Lake Louise where it was displayed at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise in Alberta.  This reception was attended by the General Manager of the hotel, Mr. Gregor Rensch, as well as local mountaineer, Will Glad, who provided the introductory speech for the exhibit with tales of his adventures and lessons learned in mountaineering. Later that year, in November the exhibition made a brief stop at the Banff centre for the Banff Mountain Film Festival where it helped celebrate the 125^th anniversary of Parks Canada.

In the New Year the now well known Swiss Mountain Guide exhibit found its way back to Golden, to the Kicking Horse Resort, where it showed briefly before moving on to Revelstoke in February.  The exhibit was displayed there at the Railway Museum and was initiated with an opening reception that included the new Deputy Consul Hans-Peter Willi, the recently appointed Trade Commissioner, Florian Gabriel, and MLA Norm Macdonald.  Then in March, the display opened with much success in Jasper at the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives. 

Currently, you will find the exhibition on display at Edmonton City Hall in Alberta until the end of April.  Thereafter, it is tentatively set to travel to Calgary to a location yet to be determined.

In June 2011, the Swiss Mountain Guides exhibit is scheduled to return to Vancouver to be a part of the 27^th Pacific Coast Swiss Singing & Yodeling Festival, which will be held at the University of British Columbia.

Later on in the year there are tentative plans for the exhibit to travel on to Victoria, BC before heading over to start the Eastern leg of its tour starting in Ottawa and later on in Toronto. 

Keep posted to this blog for more information or to follow the Swiss Mountain Guides exhibition as it continues to tour from West to East.

Swiss Design Award at Emily Carr University of Art + Design; Talk by Pierre Keller on March 22

Presentation by Mr. Pierre Keller, Director of écal (University of Art + Design) in Lausanne entitled “A success story in art and design. Young Design Talents in Switzerland” will be held on March 22, 2011 at 11:30 am at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, North Building, Room 291

Bio:

Pierre Keller was born on January 9, 1945 in Switzerland. In 1965, he graduated as a graphic designer from the “Ecole Cantonale des beaux-arts et d’arts appliqués” in Lausanne with first class honours. Keller then started a multifaceted and brilliant career as an artist, both in graphic and plastic arts, representing Switzerland in many prestigious events such as the International Poster Biennal – Warsaw, the 9th “Biennale des jeunes” in Paris and the 17th International Biennal of São Paolo – as well as a publisher, teacher, art consultant, exhibition curator and organizer. In 1991 he represented the Government of the Canton of Vaud during the festivities of the 700th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation and became director of the ECAL in 1995. As a music enthusiast P. Keller is a member of the Foundation Board of the Montreux Jazz Festival. He was proud to be promoted “Officier des Arts et des Lettres” by the French Government in 2000. In 2004, P. Keller was appointed as a titular professor at the EPFL (Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne). In 2007 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the European University in Barcelona. The same year, he won also the prestigious Merit Design Preis Schweiz.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Location

Emily Carr University of Art + Design
North Building
1399 Johnston Street (on Granville Island)
Vancouver

Swiss Design Award at Emily Carr University of Art + Design; Panel Discussion on March 17

Panel Dsicussion bringing Swiss and Canadian designers together  will be held on March 17, 2011 at 5 pm at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, South Building, Room 320

The panelists

Jonathan Aitken, moderator
With a background in graphic design, Jonathan studied as an undergraduate student at York University, in Toronto, where he was granted a BFA. Later, he graduated from the University of Alberta with an MVA. He then owned and operated a graphic design studio, Pages Design Ltd, in Toronto for 15 years. Most recently, he has taught graphic and web design at Ryerson University. Jonathan’s main research/creative interests encompass the application of kinetic typography to various projects. His current project (involving a SSHRC Research/Creation grant in the Fine Arts) involves incorporating animated type into live performance, creating a believable “typographic character” that interacts naturally with live actors. He is currently on sabbatical from Ryerson University.

Andres Wanner is on the faculty of the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University where he teaches interaction design and graphic design. He holds an MSc in Physics (University of Basel, Switzerland) and a BA in Visual Communications (University of Art and Design of Northwestern Switzerland). Between 2002 and 2008 he worked as a freelance interaction designer, held continuing appointments as a researcher and lecturer at the Swiss Art and Design Universities of Basel and Lucerne, and taught courses at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). His media art work has been displayed at Siggraph and other international venues. He is also the initiator of the International Pixelstorm-Award. This year, he will act as the Arts Chair of the Computational Aesthetics conference in Vancouver.

Christian Blyt is an Associate Professor in Industrial Design. He received his MA in Interior Architecture and Furniture Design from the University of Arts and Design in Helsinki, Finland and a technical diploma in Wood Product Manufacturing from BCIT. His work encompasses a wide range of international experiences in different segments of the wood design and manufacturing industry. He is also a partner in the design and manufacturing firm, Up and Down Productions and is working on the final stages of commercializing his patented Master thesis.

Heidi Wegener was born in Zurich in 1947 and has been the Curator of the Design Preis Schweiz since 2002. In 1989, she was appointed Administrative Director at Zurich’s Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst (College of Art and Design, now part of the Zurich University of the Arts), a position she retained until taking up the curatorship of the Preis. Prior to this, Wegener held executive positions in the industry sector of the Elektrowatt Group, where she made significant contributions to numerous innovation and development projects.

Sandra Kaufmann graduated in 1992 from a college in Wattwil. She went on to Paris where she completed an internship in Paris at Alain Mikli eyewear design. Sandra obtained her industrial design diploma in 1999 from Zurich’s Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst (College of Art and Design, now part of the Zurich University of the Arts). Later, she held the position of junior then senior designer at Process in Lucerne, a medical and sport equipment company.  From 2003 to 2005 Sandra held a position as watch designer for several high end fashion brands. In 2005 and 2006 she went on to work for ID-connect as a watch designer for luxury brands such as Montblanc. In 2007 she founded Strada del Sol where she became the CEO and head designer. Currently, she is a lecturer for industrial design at ZHKD. Is the watch designer for Jaermann & Stübi, Golfwatches

Location:

Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Concourse Gallery – North Building
1399 Johnston Street (on Granville Island)
Vancouver

Swiss Design Award at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver

The best of Swiss design comes to Vancouver.

March 18 – March 28, 2011

Practical Information:

Location:

Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Concourse Gallery – North Building
1399 Johnston Street (on Granville Island)
Vancouver

Opening hours:

Monday – Friday:    7:30am – 9:30pm
Saturday/Sunday:  8:30am – 5:oopm

Panel Dsicussion bringing Swiss and Canadian designers together  will be held on March 17 at 5pm at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, South Building, Room 320

Guided tours by the curator on March 21 – 23.

Swiss designers are known for style, creativity, and detailed execution. In March, the best of Swiss Design comes to Vancouver with the biennial Design Preis Schweiz, or Swiss Design Award exhibition. Works include Martin Leuthold’s magical Secret Garden http://www.designpreis.ch/en/reviews.09.pw.leuthold.html , Pollock fabrics http://www.designpreis.ch/en/reviews.09.nom.27.html , Nopicnic’s Pacemaker for Tonium http://www.tonium.com/products  (a fully integrated DJ system no bigger than an MP3 player), and Colin Schaelli’s V30 Skid   http://www.colinschaelli.com , a modular furniture system for Freitag http://www.freitag.ch/shop/FREITAG/page/frontpage/detail.jsf .

The Design Preis Schweiz competition is open to Swiss designers living in Switzerland and abroad as well as foreign designers who make their products in Switzerland. Organized by the Design Center in Langenthal, Switzerland, the awards in communications, textiles, products, furniture, fashion, and more are handed out by an international panel of judges that has included greats such as Konstantin Grcic and Jasper Morrison.

According to organizers, the role of Design Preis Schweiz is to give uncompromising encouragement to adventurous ideas and honor outstanding achievements. The current showcase of nominated and award-winning designs also features works from Albert Kriemler (Akris), Atelier Oï, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Claude Zellweger (One and Co.), Christa Michel, and more and has traveled around the world from Geneva to Shanghai to Tokyo to Chicago. Recently, the exhibition was presented at Design Miami. Los Angeles audiences could catch it at the A+D Museum  before it was displayed at siwssnex in San Francisco.

The Design Preis Schweiz tour is made possible by Pro Helvetia the Swiss Arts Council, Presence Switzerland and Swissnex San Francisco. As a leading country in science, research, and technology, Switzerland is working with its Canadian counterparts to address key global topics such as sustainability to better understand trends and arrive at solutions.

Swiss Singing and Yodeling Festival in Vancouver; Call for volunteers

Dear friends!

 As many of you know, we will have our great Swiss Singing and Yodeling Festival in June of this year right here in Vancouver BC.

Website: www.Saengerfest2011.info.

It is an event, in which we would like to present our Swiss Culture to everyone. Preparations are already underway in many different ways, done by many kind volunteers. But we are in need of many more volunteers, especially for two particulars days.

We are in need of helpers on Thursday June 23, 2011 for setting up Flags, Balloons, Ribbons, Swiss pictures, etc. in two rooms at UBC. We can only start setting up anything at 7am on Thursday morning, since the premises are not available before that time. There is quite a bit of work involved.

We also need again volunteers on Sunday June 26, 201 starting at approximately 3pm to take the decorations down.

Volunteers are also needed during the entire festival to collect tickets, direct people and many other functions.

Any help is very much appreciated. Please, let us know per email as soon as possible, if you are able to help and what you would like to do. Time is flying by very fast.

For more information please contact:

Alfred Eigenmann: 604-931 3001 e-mail: alfredeigenmann@yahoo.ca

Peter Schelle: 604-435 6159 e-mail: globuscontract@gmail.com

Thank you very kindly for supporting our great Swiss Culture.

The organizing comitee of the Saengerfest

T42 (Tea for two) – dance performance in Vancouver

In the context of the Vancouver International Dance Festival 2011 (VIDF), the dance duet T42 from Switzerland will perform in Vancouver on 

March 15-17, 2011 @ 7 pm, BLENZ Coffee Community Stage (at Roundhouse, corner of Davie and Pacific Streets)

T42 is an exuberantly energetic duet that juxtaposes Swiss and Japanese cultures through an encounter between a Swiss man and a Japanese woman whose language difficulties are humorously overcome through warm-hearted movement. T42 Dance Projects is comprised of Félix Duméril and Misato Inoue.

It is a free performance for VIDF members (membership costs a $3 annual fee that provide entry to all Blenz Coffee Community Stage performances—available at the door or included in the price of ticketed events).

The presence of T42 at the festival is supported by the Swiss Art Council.