When the Vitra Design Museum enquired about a potential collaboration with the fischer Group of Companies, things moved quickly. The contents of the ‘Plastic: Remaking Our World’ exhibition coincided all too well with the company’s future-oriented approach. Company owner Prof Klaus Fischer has placed significant emphasis on the sustainable development of the company and its products for many decades. “The challenges that lie ahead of us are immense for all of us; we can only overcome these together with science, the economy, society and politics”, Prof Fischer states. The exhibition makes an important contribution, raising awareness of both the opportunities and risks of plastic.
Opening at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein on 25 March, the exhibition will provide an impressive display of these challenges. Plastic is part of everyday life more than any other material and can be found in products ranging from packaging, plugs and trainers, domestic appliances and furniture to cars and architecture. The exhibition takes a look at the past, present and future of plastic - from its rapid rise in the 20th century and its consequences for the environment to potential solutions for a more sustainable use of plastic. Exhibits include rarities from the dawn of the plastic age and objects of the pop era as well as numerous contemporary designs and projects ranging from pragmatic innovations and projects to clean up oceans to bioplastics made from algae and mycelium.
fischer is exhibiting information on the castor bean, the seeds of which are used to make castor oil and subsequently produce sebacic acid. Sebacic acid serves as the primary material for fischer’s sustainable GreenLine plugs as well as additional green fischer products. These products are made of at least 50 per cent renewable materials that don’t compete with food and fodder or the corresponding agricultural land. Additional parts of the exhibit will show granulates as the starting product for plug production, the intelligent DuoPower plug in masonry as well as a film on the green fischer plug. More than 1,000 additional sustainable fischer plugs used to fasten the exhibition’s inventory, such as tables, display cabinets and screens, are invisible yet omnipresent throughout the exhibit.
After the exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum, the exhibit will be displayed at Scotland’s V&A design museum in Dundee from October until February 2023. In spring 2023 the exhibit will move to the maat museum in Lisbon, the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology. Further stops are being planned for Europe, Asia and the US. The overall exhibition can be seen across the globe with fischer as the main sponsor and part of the exhibit until 2026.
