Metamorphosis

Venetian lanterns

Design Miami 2012

Venice Projects

‘The objects that surround us have the precision and regularity of machine-made things. Our Western world became a world where everything has to fit in and function.

We all benefit from this development in an enormous way, but a world like a machine leaves little room for wondering and poetry. I want to open up our evident world, as I am passionately curious and persistent to expose an other, unknown world’.

Llove Hotel

2010

When I first was being approached by Suzanne Oxenaar to design a room for this temporary Love hotel, I discovered that a Love Hotel is a type of short-stay hotel found in Japan operated primarily for the purpose of allowing couples privacy to have sexual intercourse.

But the word “Love” refers specifically to the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love. In the philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness and compassion. For some people love is not even just a virtue, but the basis for all being.

And here the concept of my room was being born. The design had to be about the emotion, the romance and the compassion of love. I did not want to design a room for sexual intercourses but a room where one and another feels “loved”. But how to translate such wonderful but complex feelings into a design?

I decided to work with light. Because but whether light is visible to the eye or not, a really interesting aspect of light is that we “feel” light. This is because of the electromagnetic radiation of the wavelengths and also the temperature. That’s the reason why in many legends sunsets or moonlight are an important part, it is magical and touches our emotions.

But it s not just about the light in this room. You think you enter a regular hotel-room, but when you have a closer look, you see that the objects behave peculiar; The bed is crawling up the wall! Chairs seem to have melted together.. Lights are entangled and the toothbrushes are totally into one and another.

What else would you expect from a Llove hotel:

Everything has fallen in Llove!

….

Llove Hotel Tokio, 2010

Voor het tijdelijke Llove Hotel – een initiatief van het Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam en de Nederlands Ambassade waarin vijftig Nederlandse en Japanse ontwerpers samenwerkten-  richtte Pieke Bergmans kamer #308?in. ?’Love’ wordt in Japan vaak met seks geassocieerd. Pieke Bergmans wilde wegblijven van die meer vulgaire connotatie. Het thema liefde verbeeldde ze door producten te ontwerpen die zich opmerkelijk gedragen. De lampen lijken elkaar te zoenen en in elkaar te versmelten als verstrengelde dansers. De ‘Escher’ stoel bestaat uit twee mooi in elkaar versmolten exemplaren waardoor de stoel niet meer lijkt te kloppen. Het matras is acht meter lang  en kan zich opgerold, gevouwen en gebogen manifesteren. Het kronkelt zich een weg door de hotelkamer, het vleit zich tegen de muur, werpt zich over een balk aan het plafond. Zelfs de tandenborstels verkeren in een innige omhelzing. Alles is verliefd op elkaar geworden.
Een van haar docenten, ontwerper Ron Arad, zei ooit: ’To open doors is my job, in your case I would suggest to close some doors’.  In het hoofd van productontwerper Pieke Bergmans ontbreekt het nooit aan inspiratie. Ze is mateloos geïnteresseerd in materialen, productieprocessen en schuwt het experiment nooit. Haar producten onder de naam ‘Design Virus’ verspreiden zich als een epidemie.
Haar hele leven bezit Bergmans al een onuitputtelijke nieuwsgierigheid en experimenteerdrift. ‘Het leven’ bestaat uit  het erop uit gaan. Onderweg vallen dingen haar op waar een ander waarschijnlijk niet eens naar kijkt. Ze spitst zich toe op plekken waar dingen geproduceerd worden, waar ze vorm krijgen. De mogelijkheden van materialen, technische aspecten en productieprocessen fascineren haar mateloos. Zichzelf verrassen is een grote drijfveer.

Viveka van de Vliet
ITEMS

Vitra Virus

2007

The Crystal Virus has entered yet another chapter. Where in the year before it infected old and plain wooden furniture, this time the Vitra Home Collection hosts the disrupting virus at the Salone del Mobile.

The contrast couldn’t be greater. Famous pieces by Charles & Ray Eames, Maarten van Severen, Sori Yanagi, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Jean Prouve and Jasper Morrison prove to be most interesting subjects. Through form, colour, value and reputation, they claim a prominent role in the matter.The brutal invasion of the crystal onto these design icons creates a dramatic tension. It may well be this provocative drama that has caused the Crystal Virus to appear in bright red. Pieke Bergmans creates her viruses in the Royal Leerdam Crystal, in close collaboration with their crystal blowing masters.

Such a meeting between crystal and furniture is called ‘an Infection’ and is a spectacular sight. The bubbles of hot and fluent crystal are pressed against the furniture. In bursts of fire and smoke they melt together. The black burned stain in the furniture is captured inside the crystal like a fingerprint, and the objects belong together from then on. The piece of furniture has become a pedestal for the crystal object. That, at least is one way of looking at it. Another, more appropriate to the title, is that the crystal object sits on the furniture like a parasite, a virus.

Light Blubs

2009

You may wonder: What is a Light Blub??

The answer is simple: it is a light bulb that has gone way out of line. Infected by the dreaded Design Virus, these Blubs have taken on all kinds of forms and sizes you wouldn’t expect from such well behaving and reliable little products.

The Light Blubs are a series of crystal lamps, that are all unique handcrafted crystal pieces, equipped with LED lights.

Bergmans first ‘infected’ bulbs appeared in Milan in 2008, which means melted bulbs came dripping down from the ceiling… But the infection did not cure. It’s on the rampage with no cure in sight. Even the bulbs in the safe haven of their lamps are not spared. Their DNA has mutated, more grotesque, more mutilated than ever before. Like with an infection, the older the product the more susceptible it is: Old and tired lamps surrendering their bulbs to gravity. A desk lamp giving up on life, its last gasp forming the bulb. Office cupboards, made superfluous by digital databases, prop up Light Blubs with care and love. A lamp ejects her Light Blub in desperation.

These symptoms are unique, their phenomena unpredictable.

The Light Blubs accepting their fate and the pull of gravity.

Also this infection caught a massive Chandelier which was especially created for Design Miami Basel. This has been the most impressive infection up to date.

….

tentoonstelling
Groninger Museum
Material World
2011

Pieke Bergmans

-From the sky-

In een van de zalen van het Groninger Museum is een installatie te zien met een tafel en een stoel. Een alledaags en geruststellend tafereel zo op het eerste gezicht. Maar er gebeuren vreemde dingen. De anders zo betrouwbare en zo voorspelbare lichtpeertjes, hebben opeens verontrustende proporties aangenomen. Ze lijken bezield en lijken een geheel eigen leven te leiden waarbij ze in hun uitgedijde vorm bezit hebben genomen van het interieur. Het is een surreële scene die onder andere vragen stelt over de relatie tussen mensen en de dingen die ze produceren. Juist die schijnbare onveranderlijkheid van die zelfgefabriceerde omgeving, bestaand uit artefacten: huizen, tafels en stoelen enzovoort die ons elke dag, jaar in jaar uit weer hetzelfde voorkomen, en die een beschermende schil vormt tussen onszelf en de natuur, lijkt ons verder zo dynamische bestaan nog enige houvast te bieden. Zonder dat, zo voegt filosoof Hannah Arendt daar aan toe zou alles constant in flux zijn en zou er geen objectiviteit mogelijk zijn.[1]
Maar wat als de dode materie, die we zo kunstig naar onze hand hebben gezet niet zo dood blijkt te zijn? Wat betekent het voor ons beeld van de werkelijkheid, als die materiële wereld, die zo stabiel en constant lijkt, slechts een schijnzekerheid blijkt te zijn? Het zijn deze ideeën waar werk met de titel From the Sky (2011) van ontwerper Pieke Bergmans mee lijkt te spelen. Voor het blazen van de glazen vormen, misschien wel de grootste in hun soort, werkte zij samen met vakmensen.

Sue-an van der Zijpp
Groninger Museum

“Imperfectie kan in mijn ogen net zo goed perfectie zijn”

Pieke Bergmans (1978) maakte speciaal voor het Groninger Museum ‘From the sky’, een installatie met de grootste gloeilampen ter wereld die wel hele bijzondere vormen aannemen. Bergmans glasgeblazen ‘Light Blubs’ werden een aantal jaren geleden te Milaan geboren. Inmiddels zijn ze een heel eigen leven gaan leiden.. Voor de tentoonstelling Material World paste de designer de Light Blubs toe in een interieur dat tot leven lijkt te komen.

Een tafereel met een tafel en een stoel waarboven een aantal lampen bungelen waaruit de enorme peren naar benen lijken te zijn gesmolten. Met hun zwaartekracht hangen ze ergens op het randje van de stoel of lijkt een lamp zijn volume over de vloer uit te smeren.
De lampen zijn verschillend van vorm, dat is namelijk inherent aan het proces hoe deze vervaardigd worden. De vormen in ‘From the sky’ zijn allen totaal anders.

“Personalized production”

“Imperfectie kan in mijn ogen net zo goed perfectie zijn. Iets wat je juist mooi vind. Met imperfectie bedoel ik ‘verschil’ of iets wat ‘uniek’ is. Net zoals in de natuur, niets is identiek hetzelfde, terwijl dingen met dezelfde samenstellingen gemaakt zijn. We zijn allemaal anders en uiteindelijk vind je ook de schoonheid in die verschillen. Daarom ontwerp ik productieprincipes waaruit verschillende ontwerpen voortkomen. Personalized production noem ik dat. Er wordt een marge ingebouwd en daaruit ontstaat die uniciteit.
De kunst is dan natuurlijk om het wel mooi of interessant te krijgen. Je kunt niet zeggen: ‘Dit is het concept en alles wat daaruit komt is goed. Nee, dat proces moet dus nauwkeurig ontworpen en afgesteld worden.”

Floor Oostra

Groninger Museum

Water

2011

The New York Times
By Alice Rawsthorn

The Imperfectionists

As a design critic, I consider it my job to decide whether things are well designed and, if so, why. Because they are environmentally sound? Ethical? Innovative? Emotionally expressive? All good reasons, sure, but sometimes we are drawn to things simply because they give us a warm, fuzzy feeling, which is harder to explain. And I felt it recently when I spotted a set of strangely shaped water carafes at a design show in Milan.

The glass in those carafes had been tugged and twisted to the point where the objects appeared tortured yet still beautiful. They reminded me of the patchwork dresses in Rodartes fall collection, made from scraps of floral chiffon and antique lace looped around the body in seemingly random folds. Those dresses should not work, but they do. The same can be said of the jagged edges, ungainly shapes and distorted glass in the carafes. Why do they look so lovely? Would they have always appealed to me? Or is there a particular reason why they seem so gorgeous now?

Some facts. The carafes are a limited edition of eight by Pieke Bergmans who, at 32, is a rising star of Dutch design. (For those readers who have not landed on Planet Design for some time, Dutch still equals cool there.) Bergmans is a product designer who fell in love with glass four years ago, when she saw the master glass blowers at work at a Royal Leerdam Crystal factory in the Netherlands, where they have been making crystal in the traditional way since 1878.

The workers were so skillful and so inspiring, Bergmans said. What I really loved was the start of the process, when they blow the glass through a pipe into a bubble that is alive, flowing and liquid. Then the glass blower drops it into a mold, and the mystery is gone. I wanted to do something with the bubbles, to inflate them to such extremes, that they are about to break or fall off the pipe.

For the carafes, she asked one blower to make a bubble of molten glass while another pulled and prodded it into extreme shapes, with surreal waves and hollows. Neither she nor the craftsmen knew exactly where they would end up.

The carafes look eerily exquisite when empty, but even more so when filled with water. Normally when you pour water into glass, it is easy to see because the glass is unnaturally straight or perfectly round,Bergmans explained. But this glass is so irregular that it is hard to tell what is water and what is glass.

Back, then, to the question: Why are they so appealing? The short answer is: Craftsmanship + improvisation = imperfection + (a dash of) mystery. The rawness and irregularity that might have appeared ugly at another moment now seem beautiful because we are surrounded by the perfection of computer-designed objects and digitally enhanced images. If you know that something that looks fabulous is probably fake we literally can not believe our eyes when we spot a models body on a billboard anything uncontrived is bound to seem more poetic and alluring.

We also feel drawn to randomness and idiosyncrasy, especially when it is intentional. If you asked most people to choose one object that looks perfect, they would probably pick Apples glacially gorgeous iPhone or iPad. And why not? Yet the owners of those devices will tell you how much more they like them once they have messed up those elegantly composed screens with their favorite apps.

It should be noted that the carafes would not work if it were not for the skill of Royal Leerdams master craftsmen and the richness of the crystal. Otherwise that strangely shaped glass could risk looking cheap, as would Rodartes patchwork pieces if the fabrics were anything less than luscious.

Not that you need to know this to feel warm and fuzzy upon seeing those carafes. Just as you do not have to be told that the Mulleavy sisters must have watched an awful lot of film noir before dreaming up their Rodarte dresses.

Wonderlamp

2010

Pieke Bergmans & Studio Job

Obvious – that is the first thought that comes to mind when considering a collaborative effort
between Studio Job and Pieke Bergmans.

Obvious, since both designers work with archetypal materials that take their form via coagulation. Studio Job makes monumental objects of cast
bronze. In recent years, Bergmans made a name for herself with mouth-blown crystal that
coagulates into fluid forms. But especially obvious since both studios place everyday implements
in a different, surprising context.

While in most cases ‘obvious’ is not a good reason to opt for collaboration, in this case the logic
behind the partnership guarantees a quality result. And both have a highly personalized vision
and style. Where Bergmans, with surprising products, seeks correlation with reality, Studio Job
creates a unique fantasy world full of surrealistic elements. These differences offer enough
points of contact for a surprising and exciting exchange of ideas.

With projects such as Farm and Homework, in the last ten years Studio Job has taken up a
unique position in the international world of design. Enlarging everyday products into sculptures
endows them with new aesthetic and symbolic value. The wooden soupspoon or the pitchfork is
elevated to iconic object. In this, Studio Job is commenting on volatile disposable articles usually
associated with design. The relevance of this commentary is underscored by the rising status of
Studio Job – what began as a duo (Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel) has since grown into a
productive atelier with ten regular artists and a network of producers.

Pieke Bergmans made her international breakthrough in 2008 with Light Blubs, a series of
crystal lamps that refer to the archetypal incandescent lamp. By literally blowing up the bulb, she
confirms the iconic status of this light source. She emphasizes this traditional way of working by
fluidly allowing the crystal to find its new form. At the same time, she places her light sculptures
in the present by equipping them with LED’s.

Studio Job and Pieke Bergmans are taking the aforementioned projects as point of departure for
their collaboration. The light giving blubs of Bergmans are linked to seven bronze objects from
Studio Job. The unique style of both designers remains intact with these WONDERLAMP. At the
same time, an alienating object is created with an unexpected function: giving light. This yields
seven playful but monumental implements that stir the fantasy and imagination. After earlier
dark works by Studio Job such as Robber Baron – a keen commentary on unbridled capitalism -
WONDERLAMP strikes a lighter tone. Precisely in these uncertain, almost fearful times, the
need is greater than ever for hopeful products that evoke astonishment.

However obvious the collaboration between Studio Job and Pieke Bergmans may be, it is
unique in the international world of design, where precisely the personal signature of the
designer dominates. In these times in which nearly all certainties in product design are tottering,
however, such collaboration can lead to stimulating insights and unexpected results. For these
reasons, this pioneering partnership between these two Dutch studios could even develop into a
paradigmatic project.

Hence, the obvious place to present WONDERLAMP is the Salone del Mobile in Milan. After all,
for years this annual design fair has been the place where innovative and inspiring design
projects are revealed to the world. Since the eighties, Dilmos has been a synonym for research,
always open to receive projects and reflections is obviously one of the leading venues for such
design.

- Jeroen Junte, January 2010
(journalist ‘de Volkskrant’)

Res Sapiens I

in collaboration with LUSTlab
www.ressapiens.com

13 everyday lamps, using the energy of the internet, responding to data traffic, physically interacting with their surroundings, communicate via their own social network, building a microcosm of things
The Res Sapiens project merges the digital world with the physical. It connects them seamlessly, treating both entities equally. It asks questions not only to us, but also to itself.

Res Sapiens refers to thinking physical objects, from products to architecture, that surpass their visual representation and display their meaning, role and status in society. The continuous stream of (public) digital data and information form the energy on which the Res Sapiens can live. It builds the oil fields of the future, where an ever growing digital heritage increases our understanding and knowledge and, most importantly, creates a stronger collective consciousness.
With our limited perceptual capabilities we can only surf on the surface of the Digital Information Bubble. Lamp001/1 is a visualization of a living internet organism, and moreover it attempts to fuse human and machine senses and build on finding answers of how it could help us.
Lamp001/1 is the first Res Sapiens of its kind. It is both a parasite and a paradox, an identical clone and a unique individual. It thrives on information, collecting and conveying data in seamless communication with others while continuously learning from its surrounding.

The demonstration of Res Sapiens using Lamp001/1 to Lamp013/1 as shown in Milan, shows 13 plain common lamps on one table. Their additional significance lies out of sight. By placing them together you can experience a microcosm of the lamps spread around the world, a demonstration of a global network. They use the continuous stream of (public) digital data and information as their mental energy, meeting each other on their own social network. They inform you like facial expressions based on their personal surroundings, your behaviour and input, and the state of affairs of all other lamps. They can light up and project, be moved and move by themselves. They fuse product and information design, making technology invisible, working and building on humanizing the unhuman.

Authors: Pieke Bergmans & LUSTlab
Exhibition:Salone del Mobile – Milan – 2011
Date:12 – 18 April 2011Location:
Galleria Design Virus, Via Tortona 12, 20144, Milano, Italy

Res Sapiens II

in collaboration with LUSTlab
www.ressapiens.com

The Res Sapiens project merges the digital world with the physical. It connects them seamlessly and treats both entities equally. Not only does the project ask us questions, it also poses questions to itself. Res Sapiens investigates new forms of communication between man and machine and between machine and machine.

From 3 May to 6 August 2012, the Centre Pompidou will present ‘Multiversités créatives’, an exhibition devoted to industrial forecasting and to new territories and creative tools. The exhibition leads visitors along a path of experimentation, research and groundbreaking works in the fields of architecture, design, new technologies and social innovation.
LUSTlab in collaboration with Pieke Bergmans presents the second generation of the Res Sapiens project.
The Res Sapiens is a network of everyday objects, which use the internet as an endless source of energy. When working together they form a super-organism; revealing a possible awareness by mentally interpreting online data and their direct environment. The two lamps presented in Centre Pomidou are part of this network. They produce bodily responses, they shine, move and react, also to eachother. Using the continuous stream of micro-conversations on twitter, they enact the binaries of emotion and rationality. LAMP014 senses feelings in the vicinity of Paris while LAMP015 detects worldwide opinions about current significant wikipedia topics.
The Res Sapiens project merges the digital world with the physical. It connects them seamlessly and treats both entities equally. Not only does the project ask us questions, it also poses questions to itself. Res Sapiens investigates new forms of communication between man and machine and between machine and machine.

Authors: Pieke Bergmans & LUSTlab
Exhibition: Centre Pompidou
Multiversités Créatives

Many thanks to:

Mechanics: Rene Bakker
Emotional gestures: Lukáš Timulak
Wheel of emotions: Robert Plutchik

Melted Collection

2008

A collection of melted blue furniture by Pieke Bergmans and Peter van der Jagt.

These cabinets made out of a special blue foam…

Bergmans and van de Jagt have once again managed to add new dimensions to this realm of art and design. Dimensions in which material is put to new use and new form. In which furniture is baked like bread, and in which mass products are created ever differently.
So how were they made exactly? All items were cut out of isolation foam and treated with heath and baked in an oven, very much like bread. The material expands, melts and contracts, which gives the soft and light foam a very strong skin and a natural outer form.

Both Dutch designers, Pieke Bergmans and Peter van de Jagt are connected in a sense of simplicity, a touch of sparkling light humour and the insatiable need to disrupt the ordinary. By slightly changing common objects that we are very familiar with, such as furniture, kitchen tiles, vases, lights et cetera, users are suddenly put off balance. Creating such moments of surprise and re-interpretation into the daily habits can be seen as art, rather than common product design. No wonder that these products are noticed around the globe and are having great impact on the culture and the definition of design.

No.?

10 unique perfume bottles for Al Sabah Art & Design

April 2009 Kuwait

Comme Des Garcons

Commissioned by the Comme des Garcons TRADING MUSEUM TOKYO. 2009