19:30 Vice. SOME BEERS, laughs, last minute preparation for the Culebra Snake attack ...
20:10Culebra heads towards the FAD. The presentation and exhibition is for members and guests only. We have decided to arrive at the conference late, no one is guarding the entrance and we can go in without being noticed. Great luck! Well, we planned it this way… We’re inside, everyone is upstairs in the conference room.
20:27 The general director of Iguzzini begins the presentation with designer Ron Arad’s latest lamp, the Pizzakobra. According toRon Arad, his friend and designer Javier Mariscal (right there in the first row), - “More than a pizza, it looks like an “ensaimada” (typical sweet coiled pastry from Mallorca)”, but, you know, in the end Italians wind up blamed for everything…
20:30 The drag continues and publicity is the main dish.
20:35 Ron Arad and one too many introduces:
- “… Ohhhh !! I’m so sorry, I haven’t prepared anything… yesterday evening I was told I had to speak… but well, OK, because IGUZZINI asked me to”…
-“ These are my projects based on spirals… chairs in the shape of a spiral, tables, stools, bridges…bla, bla, bla. Anyway, spirals, spirals and more spirals…”
We’re a bit dizzy from so many spirals………
21:00Culebra snake begins to lose patience, it wants to meet the PizzaKobra… and it’s creator Ronny…
21:20End of the presentation, ufff… we are so happy we can all finally have a drink, all of us “together”. Downstairs immediately to the happening.
21:22 Arrival at the happening. National and international figures of the design world gather in the exhibition hall. As usual, all the nobodies gather around Ron Arad and any other “celebrity”.
21:25 Mmmmm…as usual, free food and drinks always taste better… After some pizzas (not round), and a few empty glasses, our stomachs feel better so we decide to introduce our good friend, the Snake Culebra. How will they react?
21:30Culebra cannot stand it anymore, she wants to meet Kobra and knows her time has come, so no more go-betweens and nonsense, she decides to take the iniciative and glides by stealthily amidst the crowd introducing herself directly to Ron Arad.
- “Hi, we are….. bla blaaaa blaaa.” It seems like they are going to become good friends!And finally, we take a picture!
21:30 – 22:30Culebra Snake decides to move right next to PizzaKobra, just to keep her company.
People like to meet Culebra, they flatter her, touch her, ask her phone number…
1 hour-The Culebra Snake has been standing next to her friend Kobra for ONE WHOLE HOUR! (Iguzzini general director and Iguzzini manager Spain have seen her, who knows, maybe they thought she needed company!),
22.30 Culebra is leaving, she has spent a wonderful moment next to her new friend Pizzakobra and it is now time to go on her way…
22.32+++ It could be that Culebra was closer to IGUZZINI than we thought… We will know in later chapters of Culebra’s story, friend of the night and of travelers ...
June 19th, at the BarcelonaMuseum of Contemporary Art, MACBA… - El petardete says: Hey hey hey,,, were are you going?? -Thin lamp says:My good friend !! i'm going to SANTA&COLE party at MACBA Museum.......... !! sorry for the quality of the pictures, they were made with the SONY ERICSSON K800i with 3.2Mpixels mobile phone. for obvious reasons ;).
AT THE SANTA&COLE PARTY
8:00 pm a friend of ours has become one of the finalists in a contest sponsored by Santa &Cole and Living Deco magazine, a contest we have not been invited because we didn’t participate in. We have arrived without an invitation and with a small “gift” under our arm…
HELIOS, our friend lamp
8:03 pm miraculously, we have managed to enter with the folded lamp under our arm…ufff! 8:20 pm speeches begin, bla, bla, bla, blaaa, blaaaaa… the winners anxiously await their checks and we, autoinvited-uninvited, mmmmm… we are waiting for the wonderful catering.
8:40 pmfinally!!Mmmmmm, the catering is awesome… our surprise remains hidden inside the backpack…
Our friend leaves, he is driving and cannot drink a drop of alcohol, what a shame! We can, and… what a happy coincidence. We suddenly discover that inside the MACBA, in a corner, there are two fantastic barmen preparing excellent Bombay Sapphire cocktails, O MY GOD …
EL CHOPERO DE LA MUERTE The accomplice
9:40pm between conversations, sushi, Jabugo ham, Parmesan cheese, salmon (you can tell there is a lot of money here!), one drink, two drinks, two glasses of Champagne + wine, 1, 2, 3, 4, glasses of Bombay Sapphire, uuuuuuhh, it was already
10:00 pm!! The perfect moment for the attack, everyone is a bit wasted. My accomplice (C. M.) and I decide it is time to act. We head towards the entrance where lamps, lights and furniture are displayed (see photo). We study the space to find the most appropriate location… that is the best!! Right there, next to a selection of their products, a table, sponsor decoration magazines, and quite soon my “gift” would be right there with them… the prototype of my latest lamp. I have just finished it a week ago…
10:15 pm keep pretending, have another drink. We are surrounded by security guards, one is less than 5 meters away from us and there are four more walking around, watching everything. We decide the best thing to do is to sit at one of the tables displayed and to act fast… the moment the nearest guard turns his head away from us, I open my backpack quickly, take out the lamp, set it on the floor while my friend covers me and I finally place it on the table…WOOOOOW!!!
There it is!!! In the HALL of the MACBA, the only thing we have to do is plug it. Security guard is looking but we are simply two guys having a drink next to a lamp and some LIVING DECO magazines. The lamp that did not exist to the public a few seconds ago has slipped in, a parasite, perfectly integrated into this collection of samples of Santa & Cole products, and no one has noticed! They observe it as if it were part of the collection!
10:20 pm
we look for a socket outlet where we can plug it into---CLICK!!Ready, connected, ooohhh it lights up, and what a great feeling I get from that Bombay Sapphire next to my THIN lamp in the hall of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art MACBA.
But the surprises are only beginning…we decide it's time to move since several security guards are watching us. To celebrate our feat we head towards the sushi with lots of wasabe!
10:40 pm as we return to the hall, our sight a bit blurry… probably because we have had too much to drink, could be… To our amazement, we see the owner and director of SANTA & COLE companyseated with his wife, a scarce two meters away from my lamp… I don’t know if it is because he is madly in love with that woman with beautiful legs or because he has also had too much to drink, the thing is…that my lamp has gone completely unnoticed by him (see photo).
Meanwhile, some people is looking at the company samples, suddenly one guy begins to look and touch the THIN lamp, somebody is really curious about it!!! But no one has noticed that this object does not belong to the SANTA&COLE collection.
We were taking pictures with the cell phone, stunned and a bit drunk…
11:00 pm the label is already placed on my THIN lamp, which has already been on exhibition, illuminating the table for the past 40 minutes …surrounded by all of the original company products. We can’t believe it, we are here, my lamp is here, the label…we have succeeded, we have immortalized these moments in the best way we could…
11:15 pm we leave…ecstatic…leaving my lamp behind so that it can enjoy it’s moments of glory…after eating and drinking luxuriously and especially pleased at having succeeded in reaching our goal to the last detail, not forgetting that inside the lamp, half hidden, is my email…
10:40 pmas we return to the hall, our sight a bit blurry… probably because we have had too much to drink, could be… To our amazement, we see the owner and director of SANTA & COLE companyseated with his wife, a scarce two meters away from my lamp… I don’t know if it is because he is madly in love with that woman with beautiful legs or because he has also had too much to drink, the thing is…that my lamp has gone completely unnoticed by him (see photo).
Meanwhile, some people is looking at the company samples, suddenly one guy begins to look and touch my THIN lamp, somebody is curious about it!!! But no one has noticed that this object does not belong to the SANTA&COLE collection.
We were taking pictures with my cell phone (Sony Ericsson K800i with 3.2 mega pixels), stunned and a bit drunk…
This is incredible, it is there, we have done it, the only thing missing is the finishing touch, an authentic SANTA & COLE label we discover all of the products are carrying(see photo).
11:00 pm
the label is already placed on my THIN lamp, which has already been on exhibition, illuminating the table for the past 40 minutes …surrounded by all of the original company products. We can’t believe it, we are here, my lamp is here, the label…we have succeeded, we have immortalized these moments in the best way we could…
Were i am, with my THIN LAMP very very close to me!!
The accomplice
11:15 pm we leave…ecstatic…leaving my lamp behind so that it can enjoy it’s moments of glory…after eating and drinking luxuriously and especially pleased at having succeeded in reaching our goal to the last detail, not forgetting that inside the lamp, half hidden, is my email…
The THIN lamp design is about to obtain more with less... in one piece of 0'5mm aluminium it combines all the components of a conventional lamp. It Also uses ultimate led technology light (Prolight Power LED warm white 5 Watt ) with 96 lumens of 3300ยบ K warm color temperature resulting light.
Traditionally, the relationship between design and industry in Spain has been very complicated. Innovation is something novel for many Spanish businesspersons and although this is slowly changing, our business people are not accustomed to investing in I+D. When they do decide to invest, they inevitably opt to take the minimum risks possible.
From a cultural point of view, the art world is very developed in Spain and particularly in Barcelona. There are countless schools that teach courses related to product design, (Llotja, Elisava, Eina, I.E.D,…). However, when the time comes, the market cannot absorb the flow of artistsgenerated by the different schools in the city. Many designers cannot develop as such and only a small percentage actually succeed at dedicating themselves professionally to product design, and at ridiculous salaries at that.* http://www.coroflot.com/community/global_design_rockstas.asp
As if this were not enough, another problem industrial design students face, especially in Barcelona, is the amount of interns that arrive in the city from all parts of the world, looking for jobs in studios, no matter how small they may be, creating a tremendous overflow of new professionals and apprentice designers in the city. As a result of this, interns from Barcelona and other parts of the planet, seldom see 1€ for long hours of work. (Thank goodness we have the sea, the sun, wonderful weather, great food, etc!)
No one doubts that it is very positive for all that a city be able to attract people, but we must not forget how important it is for those persons to come and not leave totally disappointed by their work/salary experience.
*** Warning for those who are thinking of coming to Barcelona looking for internships, the usual salary, in the best of cases is usually 200 € a month.
For this and many more reasons, we, the young people have been forced to do everything possible in order to attract the attention and interest of companies and to get them to know us and take their chances on our new and innovative ideas and projects.In order to establish contact with companies, we must take advantage of any opportunity, no matter how small, to show them our projects.
