ROBERT STADLER AND ALEXIS VAILLANT’s quiz ASKS ART OR DESIGN?

Quiz, organized by Robert Stadler and Alexis Vaillant, at Ensemble Poirel

ROBERT STADLER AND ALEXIS VAILLANT’s quiz ASKS ART OR DESIGN?

Quiz, organized by Robert Stadler and Alexis Vaillant, at Ensemble Poirel

ROBERT STADLER AND ALEXIS VAILLANT’s quiz ASKS ART OR DESIGN?

Quiz, organized by Robert Stadler and Alexis Vaillant, at Ensemble Poirel

ROBERT STADLER AND ALEXIS VAILLANT’s quiz ASKS ART OR DESIGN?

Quiz, organized by Robert Stadler and Alexis Vaillant, at Ensemble Poirel

ROBERT STADLER AND ALEXIS VAILLANT’s quiz ASKS ART OR DESIGN?

Quiz, organized by Robert Stadler and Alexis Vaillant, at Ensemble Poirel

ROBERT STADLER AND ALEXIS VAILLANT’s quiz ASKS ART OR DESIGN?

Quiz, organized by Robert Stadler and Alexis Vaillant, at Ensemble Poirel

ROBERT STADLER AND ALEXIS VAILLANT’s quiz ASKS ART OR DESIGN?

Back in 5 min by Robert Stadler at MAK

ROBERT STADLER AND ALEXIS VAILLANT’s quiz ASKS ART OR DESIGN?

Back in 5 min by Robert Stadler at MAK

ROBERT STADLER AND ALEXIS VAILLANT’s quiz ASKS ART OR DESIGN?

Back in 5 min by Robert Stadler at MAK

ROBERT STADLER AND ALEXIS VAILLANT’s quiz ASKS ART OR DESIGN?

Back in 5 min by Robert Stadler at MAK

ROBERT STADLER AND ALEXIS VAILLANT’s quiz ASKS ART OR DESIGN?

Back in 5 min by Robert Stadler at MAK

ROBERT STADLER AND ALEXIS VAILLANT’s quiz ASKS ART OR DESIGN?

Quiz — Based on an idea by Robert Stadler, a playful exhibition at Ensemble Poirel in Nancy, France, is now the also the subject of a new book. Organized by Austrian-born and Paris-based designer Robert Stadler together with Alexis Vaillant, chief curator at CAPC Contemporary Art Museum of Bordeaux, Quiz is a collection of over 70 objects that straddle the often fine line between functional art and abstraction in industrial design.

Among them are works by artists Richard Artschwager, Martin Creed, Tea Jorjadze, Dario Guccio, Donald Judd, and Amalia Pica, while the design professionals are represented by the likes of Ron Arad, Paul Cocksedge, Laureline Gaillot, Konstantin Grcic, and Gio Ponti.

The concept behind Quiz may deal with art and design’s grey area, but the exhibition design is anything but. Conceived by Robert Stadler and continuing throughout three galleries, it consists of wall hangings, pedestals, as well an entire seating area rendered in an electric blue normally used for video compositing. The choice of colors, says Stadler, “further strengthens the decontextualizing position of the project.”

Stadler’s work is also on view at the MAK Design Salon in the designer’s native Vienna. Entitled Back in 5 min, the small but striking exhibition features designs by Stadler juxtaposed with rustic Austrian cottage stools and benches, against the backdrop of the Empire and Biedermeier interiors of the Geymüllerschlössel, a former summer residence for the Austrian royal family, now a branch of the MAK. Among his new designs Stadler is presenting in Back in 5 min are the stools Aymeric (2014) and the benches Cora and Dora (2014), both made from aluminum honeycomb sandwich panels. Also on view: a series of digitally printed textiles he produced together with the venerable Austrian textile company Backhausen and which imitate the pattern of the parquet, carpeted, or stone floors in each of the space’s rooms. “Distortions can be discerned in the patterns, similar to when you use Google Earth and an image hasn’t finished loading. It results in a freeze effect, which addresses the endless period of absence in the currently unoccupied Geymüllerschlössel,” explains Stadler in the exhibition’s press release.

Text by Sophia Choi.

Quiz is as a book published by Manuella Editions, France.