– atelier 5, new year’s greetings, “eauriginals”, bern 2001

atelier 5

pure water – a metaphor for the minimalist philosophy and crystal clear designs of this architects’ practice. the water was injected into glass phials printed with “eauriginals” in red, producing little multiples. the red text and red adhesive tape provided a reference to the object’s swiss origins. after several hundred glass cylinders had been filled, using medical syringes, you could hear a gentle rhythmic popping noise as the compressed air in the phials pushed the stoppers up. meanwhile the temperature was falling and we couldn’t h elp imagining the recipients opening their boxes to find a spray of glass fragments inside. at night, with the temperature at minus 15, we put a few phials outside as a test and were astounded by a wonder of physics – the water didn’t freeze. nonetheless atelier 5 ultimately found itself being asked what the broken glass in the box was meant to signify: the swiss post office stamps all packages by hand and clearly the post office staff had discovered that these unusual, hand-made boxes made a delightfully amusing cracking sound if you stamped them hard, right in the middle.

atelier 5
new year’s greetings
“eauriginals”
bern 2001

more