By Jeanne Tan /asdf 24-04-2009

Walking around the design events of Milan, you could tell those visitors who had visited Pieke Bergman's exhibition: somewhere on their clothes, they had been infected by her 'Design Virus' stickers. 

Located at the beginning of Via Tortona, Bergman's presentation attracted a constant stream of visitors, packed into the tiny gallery space which is her Milan base.

This year, there was still no cure to the Design Virus. Bergmans showed new special editions of Light Blubs, a series of 12 unique lights based around old and tired metal lamps and office furniture.

In the adjacent space, her new cabinets offered surprises inside. Entitled 'Crate Cabinets', the collection was inspired by the idea of transporting precious belongings in custom-made crates, commonly called Museum Crates. Here, antique cabinets are housed inside rough purpose-made wooden crates, with the name of the design stencilled on the outside, alonside 'fragile' and 'handle with care'. 'The crate is an icon for safety and protection. We all relate to its function, able to read on the markings its origin, destination and fragility of its contents', says Bergmans. 'The crate creates a sense of curiosity. What makes a crate's content so special that it needs to be packed so precise and to be sent across the globe? This curiosity and sense of expectation was the inspiration to design a collection of cabinets. Their external raw functionality hiding their fragile internal contents only experienced once the crate doors open.'

Add to favorites