During Milano Design Week 2018, horgenglarus and Stephan Hürlemann presented the installation “Giants with Dwarf“ to the visitors of Fuorisalone. The exhibition took place in one of the abandoned warehouses at Ventura Centrale. The installation developed by Stephan Hürlemann for horgenglarus in 2016 consists of seven figures, up to three metres tall, assembled with chair and table parts from the Glarus-based furniture manufacturer’s parts archive, which dates back more than a hundred years. The elements were left in the condition they were found in. To join them, holes were drilled to link them with cable ties – only the monkey’s teeth are glued on. Individual body parts of the figures can be moved by pulleys, thus bringing the bee (34 parts), duck (35 parts), the dwarf (35 parts), monkey (33 parts), panda (35 parts), tired warrior (51 parts) and Pink Panther (39 parts) to life. A specially composed soundscape of creaking ropes conjoined with humming and mumbling noises enhanced the installation’s vivid character.

For the presentation of “Giants with Dwarf“ in the six metres high vaulted hall beneath Milan Central Station, Stephan Hürlemann particularly focused on the spatial arrangement of the figures as well as the installation’s illumination. In order to create a mystic atmosphere, the windowless, damp-cold room was fogged artificially and illuminated indirectly with cold-light-bars placed at the vaults’ sides. The figures themselves were spotlighted with warm light to emphasise the wooden parts’ shining surfaces.

Winner of the Milano Design Award 2018

Design: Stephan Hürlemann

Lighting Design Consulting: Walter Moggio, EBP Schweiz AG

Pictures: Hürlemann (Stephan Hürlemann and Elisa Böll), Pietro Baroni and Claudio Grassi

Video: Malaka / Producer: Barbara Hutter

Also watch the making-of of «Giants with Dwarf».