Hospitality and creativity in the name of the cultural curator behind Object Rotterdam
From Mae Engelgeer to Sabine Marcelis to Dirk Vander Kooij, there will be no shortage of Dutch creativity – with its unmistakable sensibility – at Milan Design Week. Designed by Space Encounters, Bar Anne is a one-of-a-kind Milan Design Week experience ‘by designers, for designers’, featuring an interior created through collaboration between some of the biggest breakout talents from the country.
Conceptualized in honour of Anne van der Zwaag – owner-director of Object Rotterdam, author, curator and ambassador of the Dutch design scene – Bar Anne merges the work of Rick Tegelaar, VanTot, Mae Engelgeer, Klaas Kuiken, Dirk Vander Kooij, Jolan van der Wiel, HandMade Industrials, Kranen/Gille, Jelle Mastenbroek, Nightshop, Sabine Marcelis, Brit van Nerven, Fransje Gimbrere, and Aart van Asseldonk under a spectacular installation by visual artists Children of the Light at the Diocesan Museum.
Obsessed with light, shape, and the tension between natural and synthetic, Dirk Vander Kooij is one of the designers contributing to Bar Anne.
The work of Jos Kranen and Johannes Gille, the duo behind Kranen/Gille, imparts a quirky character to the space.
‘Bar Anne is a radical concept that combines bar, show, and exhibition into a cohesive experience that’s open and inclusive,’ say the designers, Frame Award-winning studio Space Encounters. ‘All the designs are in use – you can try them, sit on them, jump on them, sleep on them.’
Tinted mirrors by Sabine Marcelis and Brit van Nerven punctuate Bar Anne with portals of light and colour.
Open from 11a.m. to 1a.m., Bar Anne serves lunch, dinner and aperitifs to the design-hungry from 17 - 22 April. And on the evening of 18 April, the Frame Awards Milan will occupy the space to honour the most innovative and inspiring trade-fair stands at Salone del Mobile.
Centrally located between the famous Zona Tortona and the city centre, Bar Anne will be the hotspot of the week to experience Dutch design – welcoming the curious, the creative, the hungry and the prize-winning.