Milan Design Week: Douglas Mandry’s Art Curtain at the DAAily bar

Installed along an entire side and rear wall of the DAAily bar at Swiss Corner, Douglas Mandry’s artwork, titled Melting Ice Photograms, chronicles melting glacial ice on photographic paper as an abstract documentation of anthropogenic climate change.

‘The project takes as its starting point the melting phenomenon of glaciers in Switzerland,’ states Mandry of the piece. ‘On the one hand, I collected found photographs from the 1930s – early signs of alpine tourism in Switzerland – testifying to the grandeur of Swiss glaciers, as well as their commercial potential.’ Mandry then re-printed the images onto geotextile, otherwise known as glacier blanket – a material specifically designed to protect glaciers during the summer season.

Using lithography, the collected blankets are printed on after use, merging images of idyllic snowy mountains with the physical reality of rust, water and earth embedded into the fabric. ‘Signs of a vain attempt by man to slow down a process which he himself contributed to.’ explains Mandry.

Spanning the DAAily bar's lounge, bar and stage areas, the Melting Ice Photograms artwork additionally involves collecting ice blocks from the same glacier, and using them to create photograms, ‘directly exposed as they melt on location in the mountains,’ explains Mandry. ‘Those layers of experimentation are assembled in a space installation, where formats, materials and status express their meaning until the last step of the project – the physical experience of it.’ Mandry will go into more detail on the project, during a Live Talk at the DAAily bar, hosted by Designboom's Editor-in-Chief, Birgit Lohmann.

As a cultural project sponsored by Bally and Christian Fischbacher, Douglas Mandry’s 30-metre-long Art Curtain will be separated into eight 335 x 355 cm sections and auctioned off to raise funds for a humanitarian fund for Ukraine.

The Art Curtain will be installed at the DAAily bar, open from 7 to 10 June, 2pm to 9pm:

DAAily bar
at Swiss Corner
Piazza Cavour / Via Palestro 2
20121 Milano

The charity auction will take place after the event. If you would like to be invited to participate in the auction, please contact us at auction@daaily.com

© Architonic