Dante-Goods and Bads at Imm Cologne 2017. "Would you like an adventure now, or shall we have our tea first?“

Parallel Choice Assortment

A mystery collection, an assortment by association. Colors mixed with feelings, materials full of innuendo, ghosts and shadows and something we can’t quite put our finger on:
welcome to Dante’s 2016 Collection, Parallel Choice Assortment.

When we thought about this year’s theme, we let our mind wander and marveled at the very strange places it took us. Association is a curious thing, it doesn’t follow any obvious logic, but, like Alice goes down the rabbit hole, leads us into a world full of the subjective: fragments, dreams, the half forgotten, the semi-conscious. Parallel Choice Assortment is inspired by the whimsical aesthetic of this world.

Each year, Dante invites a Guest to inspire, mentor or collaborate. For Parallel Choice Assortment we found the perfect match in French photographer Camille Vivier, whose artistic style is permeated by the peculiar spirit we sought for this collection. A style, as she herself puts it, of emotions and daydreams full of oddities.

For the collection itself, there will be a lot to see and feel. A folded up rug playing a trick on the eye, an odd little container wrought from industrial tube, and, of course, the material embodiment of all illusion: a mirror. We also did a lot of re-thinking, daring unusual combinations of haptic materials and colors.

As a whole, Parallel Choice Assortment resonates with combination, with the relationship of material, object and meaning, but not necessarily in any way that makes sense. Not at first sight.

This year, we followed the rabbit down the hole. Look what we found.

DANTE-Goods And Bads creates objects, products, editions with qualities above and beyond
the substantial; associative qualities: emotions, habits, memories, tastes, aversions, the good,
the bad, never the ugly.

Therefore, to each collection DANTE- Goods And Bads invites a so-called guest to inspire,
mentor and/or influence it. Each collection’s products, design and presentation then emerge
from some form of dialog with that individual, institution or concept. His or her or its emotions,
habits, memories.

The design of every product ever made has always been shaped by the most prominent need
of the society that created it. More often than not, it was the search for the practical, for maximal
usability. DANTE-Goods And Bads, however, senses another desire: Warmth. Content.
Our filter is this: create a connection. Create material objects that are not merely things, but
favorites. Talismans.

Everyday products that are not a priori practical, useful, efficient but rather: emotional. So
they can have unlikely material attributes like humor, vanity, passion. Comfort, even.

DANTE-Goods And Bads was founded in 2012 by artist Aylin Langreuter and industrial designer
Christophe de la Fontaine. They share a profound love of the material world for all its pathos and beauty.

Dante-Goods And Bads

imm Cologne 2017
16-22/01/2017
Hall 2.2 / stand M015

Opening hours:
Mon. to Sat. 09:00 am to 06:00 pm
Sun. 09:00 am to 05:00 pm

info@dante.lu