news
  • 15.3.2024 – 13.10.2024
    new project , exhibition

    "Water Pressure - Designing for the future" an exhibition of the MK&G Hamburg and Jane Withers Studio – looks at the water crisis from a global perspective. We were commissioned to come up with an installation celebrating water. The result "vital rain" is part of the exhibition and will stay permanently in the museums yard.
    more soon

    MKG Hamburg - Water Pressure

  • april 2024
    new project

    For the glassware company Lobmeyr we designed "ident" - drinking set No.287

    Identical shape, identical height - five individual glasses.
    The series was unveilded during Milan Design Week.

    Lobmeyr

  • april 2024 - ongoing
    factory tour

    We designed the factory tour for Laufen in Gmunden with a lot of details and small installations to guide and inform local and international guests.

    Laufen Gmunden

  • 5.4.2024 - 14.7.2024
    exhibition

    "inWastement" glass series is on show at the Klimabiennale in Vienna at the "design with a purpose" exhibition.

    Klimabiennale Wien

  • 15.9.2023 - 21.7.2024
    exhibition

    HEIMATEN. An exhibition and survey and an attempt to break with conventional takes on Heimat. the exhibition was shown at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G) in 2022. Our specially commissioned piece 'riparian cloud' is now also on show in Molfsee.

    Freilichtmuseum Molfsee

  • 01.06.2024 - 30.03.2025
    exhibition, adapted project

    A utopian insect swarm based on our 'curiosity cloud' developed with 13 children from Dresden swirls during the Kinderbiennale in the Japanische Palais. The participatory process resulted in 24 fantastic, colourful insects.

    Children's Biennale "Planet Utopia"

  • 30.05 2024 - 13.10.2024
    new project , exhibition

    All in! Re-Designing Democracy - Every aspect of democracy has been designed, therefore it can be designed differently. A new "Themis" claims in the exhibition for rights for Nature.

    Bundeskunsthalle

  • 10.05. 2024 - 23.06.2024
    exhibition

    20th anniversary international exhibition and series of events. Our glass project "access" is part of the exhibition.

    design without borders

sudden reality & the world beyond

dream elements entering reality to
form magical window displays

  • year 2019

  • category staging & spatial Installations

  • for

    hermès japon

Reacting to Hermès’ 2019 theme “in the pursuit of dream”, we designed two different concepts as window displays for Hermès. The various scenographys were installed in all shops across Japan in the winter-season of 2019. Both concept merge reality with dreamworlds, that exist in hidden layers beyond, and bring magic and enchantment into the windows.

main image above: a drying clothesline in a painting spans into the room, image credit: Nacása & Partners Inc. / Courtesy of Hermès Japon

sudden reality

kites seem to fly out of books about kites and flying objects , image credit: Nacása & Partners Inc. / Courtesy of Hermès Japon

Dreaming often merges a surreal world with reality. Things that are ordinary items of daily life change suddenly their appearance, behaviour and scale. This is what the concept sudden reality brings into the Hermès window displays. Paintings hanging in normal “households” suddenly become reality. The painted scenes become alive and blur into the rooms with Hermès objects to create a mixture between the real and the imaginary. Various scenes can be discovered:  Reeds grow out of a painted image of a lake and help to display Hermès objects; botanical drawings on a wall become alive and fill the room with plants;  a kite gets loose on a painting of a beach with playing kids and flies into the Hermès window. On closer inspection one realizes that the kite is made out of a folded scarf; A beautiful painted colourful autumn tree defoliates and the red, yellow and orange leaves fall into reality and fill the Hermès display with foliage covering and displaying various products and last but not least a painting depicting a cloths line spans into the rooms and the cloth become delicate Hermès silk scarfs moving in the wind.

reeds seems to grow from a picture of a lake, image credit: Nacása & Partners Inc. / Courtesy of Hermès Japon

kites and reed from paintings are appearing in rooms, image credit: Nacása & Partners Inc. / Courtesy of Hermès Japon

dreams create worlds with very familiar elements but strange aspects

autumn leaves seem to be blown from the painting, image credit: Nacása & Partners Inc. / Courtesy of Hermès Japon

the world beyond

view to a hermès shop in japan with windows showing the world beyond reality, image credit: Nacása & Partners Inc. / Courtesy of Hermès Japon

Our dreams are subconscious layers of our mind. They are hiding behind our everyday life – sleeping when we are awake-  and are invisible to our rational behaviour. In the concept the world beyond these hidden layers, and especially dream creatures of the fantasy world are unveiled in various ways in the Hermès window displays. Walls are ripped open, tapestry glides down, carpets bend open. These openings allow the hidden world beyond to enter  reality. The beautiful big dream scenes and huge creatures enter the displays and bring Hermès products along. One of the creature unveiled is a huge hairy, furry lila being. Never seen in full, one can imaging the soft big, gentle beast. Hidden in his fur, on big strands of hair, Hermès products can be discovered. Another scenery is a winter bamboo forest slowly growing into the displays. The last unveiled world is again a fantastic animal. A big bird with huge colourful feathers lives in the world beyond. Resting behind in the dream world, its feathers spans into the windows and are full of Hermès objects. – They as well bring some dreams along.

a winter bamboo forest is appearing behind the wall, image credit: Nacása & Partners Inc. / Courtesy of Hermès Japon

illustration of one of the scenographies of the world beyond

surreal worlds entering reality

illustrations of paintings becoming alive and entering reality

  • material

    paper, metal, fabric, various

  • team

    Katharina Mischer, Thomas Traxler, Elisa Polner, Stephan Jäger, Monja Hirscher