THE FARAWAY LAND – BORDERS ARE ONLY IN THE MIND

You could call it the festival’s best-furnished home away from home: Vienna’s Imperial Furniture Collection has been a fixture of each VIENNA DESIGN WEEK for some time. In 2017, the occasion was an exhibition dedicated to Maria Theresa, and an installation by Sebastian Menschhorn was there to admire. Like many of her contemporaries in the 18th century, Maria Theresa loved everything from the Middle and Far East. For a playful look at this exoticism, Menschhorn worked with Vienna’s porcelain manufactory Augarten, Kohlmaier, and J. & L. Lobmeyr, applying the principles of the Rococo to create a private microcosm fusing foreign and familiar.