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In the service of truth
By Pernille Kleding
The artist Karsten Auerbach and Quilts of Denmark have embarked on a noteworthy relationship thet cut across art and business.
There was once an artist who had a really good idea. He wanted to combine his special ability to think differently with the goal-oriented approach of industry and commerce. Six years later he was standing in the production hall at Quilts of Denmarkon a mission to expose the firm's true identity. This was the first step towards an innovative - and award-winning - meeting between art and business.
Disruptive. Karsten Auerbach and Quilts of Denmark were brought together by NYX, an organisation thet works to promote Danish innovation partly by gettig art and business to cooperate.
"It's not unusual. In fact, there's a name for it: Disruptive knowledge. The idea is that a business or institution invites someone in who knows absolutely nothing about them and gets a completely different take om things. Because thats how innovation happens. Twenty years ago businesses brought sportspeople in to optimise cooperation. Now they're going a step further and saying that they wont get anywherer without crazy ideas. The thing is to be at the leading edge, and not just go straight from A to B, from problem to solution. Which is where the artist feels at home. He's used to taking things apart and putting them together in new ways. The business doesn't just get a solution to a given problem, it's invited into the creative proces ans has its horizons broadened." says Karsten Auerbach.
Innovative, good sleep and energized. What a business says about itself has to be true and credible both internally and internally. This was Karsten Auerbachs conviction and starting point when he arrived at the plant in Vamdrup. I didn't want to create en image for Quilts of Denmark, but to help them find their own identity. And I think I've succeded. The workforce at Quilts of Denmark started to compare their firm with other quilt producers. They found that they ARE innovative and they are different because they are good at making new things. They discovered that their goal is not just to sell quality quilts and down, but to sell good sleep - and the the result of good sleep. The task is now to communicate the three values they identified, "innovative", "good sleep" and "energized", to costumers so that they see the real Quilts of Denmark too.
Flying Quilts. And it's already happened. In autumn 2004 Quilts of Denmark and Karsten Auerbach joined forces for an exhibition in the Magasin du Nord department store in Copenhagen. I was a great succes. People stopped for a second look and marvelled. it is, after all, a bit unusual to sell quilts by making them fly through the air.
"The exhibition is the direct result of our workshops. Some of the staff had the idea of flying quilts. For me, the metaphor of flying quilts is innovation.. The sleeping positions on the quilts tell customers that we're interested in how they sleep. We've not yet implemented the final value, "energized". It's a bit more difficult, but very, very exciting. We might end up not showing the quilts at all, because consumers already know that behind every "energized" day there is a good night's sleep"
Functional art. The innovative cooperation between Karsten Auerbach and Quilts of Denmark won the Innovation Alliance Award 2004 for the most effective alliance in Denmark. The bridge between art and business held firm, but the flow of knowledge has not just been one way.
"As weel as getting loads of inspiration and ideas that would never have come to me on my own in my workshop, I've become better at thinking commercially. I also get an enormous response as an artist by working with business. There are no style police, just ordinary people assessing whether thy can use the result in their everyday lives. My approach is always to look for the truth on one level or another and then bring it out into the light of day. I've been a believer since I was 21 and have stood in church with my easel next to the altar, painting during the service. I like the idea of art being let out of the highbrow preserve. Art's a language and a form of cognition, and in this way I give people the opportunity to communicate and think differently, and to see things from different points of view. I take the skills from my workshop and from my craft as an artist. And it doesn't matter whether people call it art or not, as long as it means something." says Karsten Auerbach.
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Quilts of Denmark MAGAZINE.
January 2005
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| Karsten Auerbach lives with his wife and two children in Faaborg on Funen. In the course of six years he has cooperated with around 60 enterprises in different ways. He originally trained as a teacher, but was also a design and project manager a Lego. When they took him on, it was a boyhood dream come true, as he sent his first application to them when he was just 13 years old. He now works as a full-time artist |
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A part of the 25 m high installation of 100 flying quilts in Magasin du Nord.
Studies of good sleep. Printed at 2m high posters for Magasin du Nord department store in Copenhagen
The presentation of the Innovation Aliance Award 2004 at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen.
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