The London Design Festival Week has just started and with it also the beginning of Design Frontiers. London has long been regarded as the center for design innovation. Design Frontiers cements that reputation, with thought-provoking and inspiring work from the 30 designers renowned for shaping and leading their respective disciplines.
Design Frontiers Encounter works from 30 international designers pushing the frontiers of the design world. One of the highlights of this new movement of the London Design Festival is Mineral Gravity by Arik Levy, the new installation of the artist and designer for COMPAC.
The installation can be seen at Somerset House, one of the city’s most spectacular and well-loved spaces, Somerset House is home to possibly the largest creative community in London since it’s 18th century-origins.
Mineral Gravity: the design installation you’ve never seen
Mineral Gravity has not gone unnoticed during the first day of Design Frontiers. The new installation by Arik Levy for COMPAC has been one of the hot spots at Somerset House during the start of the London Design Festival. The installation shows Arik Levy’s vision creating a minimalist setting that explores the dialogue between the horizontal and vertical parameters of our living environment. The main piece of the installation is a massive sculptural mono-block mineral quartz kitchen island that stands in the center of the space as a floating iceberg.
The centerpiece is made of engineered quartz from the collection Ice of Genesis by Arik Levy and its composition makes visitors imagine that it has been carved from one block of quartz. The sculptural mono-block weights 1 ton and it has been fabricated in Spain, COMPAC’s origin country.
The rest of the installation is completed with thin vertical slices of different quartz-based slabs of COMPAC quartz. Visitors can see with theses slabs the rest of the designs of the Ice of Genesis Collection and some designs of the UNIQUE Collection as Unique Calacatta. These sections create the main structure of the installation and represent a feeling of endlessness against the high ceilings of Somerset House’s West Wing. The relationship between the enormous mass of the quartz iceberg and the lightness of the slices create a juxtaposition within the space forcing the audience to question the everyday angles and orientations of our living spaces.
Visitors to Mineral Gravity can enjoy an audio-visual presentation that journeys through:
- The history of Compac.
- The creation of Mineral Gravity.
- Testimonials of Arik Levy and Paco Sanchis, COMPAC’s CEO.
- And Ice of Genesis video.
The space will also have a seating area featuring two iconic North lights designed by Arik Levy for Vibia Lighting.
Studio Appétit presents Mineral Delicacy, a cabinet of curiosities
COMPAC has also commissioned Amsterdam-based culinary design company Studio Appétit. Studio Appétit’s founder, Ido Garini, is known for creating experimental culinary installations. Ido took inspiration from the Mineral Gravity installation itself and worked with Arik Levy to create a cabinet of curiosities within the installation space where guests are invited to sample the studio’s edible creations.
A daily activation in the space examines Mineral Gravity’s more elemental use as a kitchen island and its relation to food and cooking while highlighting its allegorical connection to material creation. The activation sees an elegant boutique production line of monochrome tools and idiosyncratic ingredients resulting in a mineral dish evocative of COMPAC’s collections and using innovative techniques reminiscent of the company’s production of technical quartz and marble surfaces.
In a daily tasting, visitors are not just invited to taste the edible minerals but to explore their coexistence with COMPAC surfaces by placing their mineral in one of three mini photography sets and create and document their aesthetic exploration.
Do you want to know all the information related to the Design Frontiers? Follow our blog.
