ENTRY2006
Perspectives and visions in design

26 August - 3 December 2006

Zollverein, Essen

With ENTRY2006, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia is breaking new ground in terms of boosting the economy and developing locations.
The focus of ENTRY2006 is on design, the motor of the creative sector and a competitive and innovative economic factor of the future.
The main exhibition, which will be housed in a former coal washing plant that has been redesigned by Rem Koolhaas, will showcase ‘perspectives and visions in design’ for 100 days. A total of 300 exhibits from more than 20 countries will be on display to the public.
About 40 other events will serve as a platform for the presentation of design ideas and products, will build bridges between companies and designers, and will create opportunities for the forging of business partnerships.
ENTRY2006 will take place on the grounds of the world heritage site at Zollverein, which used to be Europe’s largest mining facility. Zollverein has already earned itself an international reputation as a design hub. The Designzentrum NRW with the red dot design museum is located in the former boiler house at Zollverein. The Zollverein School of Management and Design has already started tuition and will move into its new building, which was designed by the Japanese architects SANAA, in 2006.
The Kohlenwäsche at Zollverein has been renovated and transformed into a 7,000 square metre museum that will be the home of design/architectural perspectives and visions for 100 days

Five internationally renowned curators have put together five fascinating exhibitions for ENTRY2006.
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- Entry2006 exhibition Second Skin

Skin envelops living things. It is a substance with fascinating properties: it reacts to light, expands, and retracts; it can be wounded and manipulated; it can regenerate itself. It is the inspiration for a series of modern materials with similar characteristics.
Exteriors and membranes are of great importance in today’s world. Surfaces are assuming new functions and are being used in innovative designs. »Second Skin« features examples from the fields of furniture, fashion, architecture, health, and the media.
Second Skin is the Cooper-Hewitt Museum’s new exhibition on skins. It features products and developments from the past four years as well as selected objects from the original Cooper-Hewitt,
2002 exhibition Skin: Surface, Substance and Design.
Curator: Ellen Lupton, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, New York City, USA

- Entry2006 exhibition Open House

Open House, Intelligent Living by Design presents innovative and highly promising developments from the fields of architecture, interior design, and communication design. It reveals the wealth of opportunities and risks that are inherent in high-tech houses. The house of the future is crammed full of complex functions. Technological progress plays an important role in this regard, as do the demands and requirements for high-quality habitation in a changing society in which people have a greater life expectancy.
Open House will open its doors for the very first time at ENTRY2006. From Essen, it will move to the United States where it will be exhibited at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, USA.
Curator: Alexander von Vegesack, director of the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany, in co-operation with Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, USA.

- Entry2006 exhibition Groundswell

This exhibition provides an overview of contemporary landscaping projects and concepts that have played a key role in the renaturation of fallow land and the revitalisation of urban space. It shows clearly that abandoned areas can be transformed into parks and green areas. Videos and animations, models, drawings, computer presentations, and large-format photos present more than twenty projects from North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
The exhibition Groundswell, Constructing the Contemporary Landscape was first held in the Museum of Modern Art in spring 2005. New projects have been added to the exhibition for ENTRY2006. Moreover, ‘Groundswell’ focuses on the topical debate about strategies for the future design of parks.
Curator: Peter Reed in collaboration with Irene Shum, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

- Entry2006 exhibition Talking Cities

Talking Cities will feature innovative international design, architecture and spatial interventions in a trans-disciplinary exhibition and event platform. It stretches the boundaries of architecture and urban design and shifts our perceptions of contemporary city spaces. Complete with an audio lounge for screenings and talks, the space will be designed in the spirit of Cedric Price’s Fun Palace – employing a flexible construction that acts as social and informal architecture that can be adapted and transformed by the protagonists. A dense collage of statements and designs will make tangible the dialogue on reconfiguring, and reactivating the marginal, residual and public spaces of our cities. Talking Cities reveals new perspectives on the fragmented conditions that make up our present day urban realities.
Curator: Francesca Ferguson, urban drift productions Ltd., Berlin, Germany

- Entry2006 exhibition Entry Paradise

Starting with classic 20th century industrial and emotional design, the Wall of Entry Paradise takes in various eras of design including BANG design: bits, atoms, neurotechnology, and genetic engineering. The exhibition heightens the visitors’ awareness of questions relating to perspectives and visions in design. The motto of Entry Paradise is design becomes invisible; design makes visible. With this motto, the exhibition highlights the possibilities opened up by creative work. New technologies expand the canon of design. So much has a direct effect on important sectors of life. But should we be allowed to do everything that is feasible? Design on a journey through virtual worlds to a utopian wonderland.
Curator: Werner Lippert, Projects, Düsseldorf, Germany, in collaboration with Prof. Peter Wippermann, trendbüro, Hamburg, Germany. Exhibition design: OMA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.