The artist and designer Arik Levy has chosen COMPAC Surfaces to be part of the creations in one of his two exhibition spaces at the Swarovski Kristallwelten. The museum and artistic complex of the Austrian company was built in 1995—the centenary year of the prestigious firm—in the city of Wattens (Austria) and houses different galleries in its ‘Chambers of Wonder’. Swarovski displays the work of international artists in each of the 17 rooms, showcasing the possibilities of crystal, while uniquely and spectacularly transmitting emotions and creating impossible fantastical atmospheres.
Visitors to the Swarovski Kristallwelten are able to see up-close the rooms designed by artists and creators including Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol, Brian Eno, Yayoi Kusama and Arik Levy himself. The cultural centre also includes a garden where different works of art are exhibited alongside a children’s play area, restaurant and an impressive shop with the firm’s latest designs.
EmotionalFormation
Under the title EmotionalFormation, Arik Levy has created a space that intends to take visitors on an internal journey in search of ‘the unrevealed treasures of your future self’. The lighting display plays an essential role by conjuring inspirational glimmers that extol the artistic value of crystal and its interplay with the light. There are six unique artistic pieces on display that intend to cajole visitors into introspection. The path towards this meeting with the ‘self’ runs along a specially created flooring installation using COMPAC’s Ice Black design. The material’s grain marks maze-like steps that fuse into turns and new discoveries. This crystal emotional formation comes not just from the treasures on display in the showcases but runs throughout the room, emanating before visitors’ eyes and reflecting natural growth. The dark hue of the Ice Black design inevitably draws the gaze, whisking visitors to a timeless, ethereal and hypnotic space.
Arik Levy has another room at the museum housing Transparent Opacity—a completely different concept that plays with the size of elements and different materials such as crystal, marble, steel and synthetics that have been produced on a 3D printer.
