Their joint interest and goals brought together Tulga Beyerle, Thomas Geisler and Lilli Hollein to found the Neigungsgruppe Design in 2006 as an independent initiative to define the perception of design in Austria more precisely, to stimulate discourse and examination of this theme, to illustrate the position held by design in the field of tension between culture and business, all in all to convey and spread their passion for design. After their first presentation of the Passionswege in 2006, the three curators developed a common roof for the active Viennese design scene by setting up the Vienna Design Week. The success of this festival is an explicit sign of the quality of design and the level of design enthusiasm in Vienna and underlines the credo of the Neigungsgruppe Design, that one can discuss and mediate design in different ways and inspire the public at the same time.
Thomas Geisler
Designer and design researcher, Vienna
(*1971), studied product design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and at Danmarks Designskole, Copenhagen. He has a MAS in Exhibition and Cultural Communication Management (ECM). Working as a designer with focus in scenography and communication design he has been partner of the design collective maupi since 2000. Thomas Geisler has been a lecturer in the Department of Design History and Theory at the University of Applied Arts Vienna since 2005. His research and publications include among others, Karriereleiter – (K)eine Anleitung zur Designarbeit!, Vienna 2007, together with Ingrid Mückstein; Victor Papanek: Design für die reale Welt, Wien/New York 2008, together with Martina Fineder and Florian Pumhösl.
thomas.geisler@neigungsgruppe-design.org
Tulga Beyerle
Design consultant, curator and author, Vienna
(*1964) studied industrial design in Vienna. From 1993-2000 she was teaching assistant in theory and history of design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Since 2001 she has worked as a freelance consultant, moderator (among others, The Design Annual, Frankfurt 2007) and author (among others, Design Cities, eight moments that changed the world, London 2008; with Karin Hirschberger, editor of A Century of Austrian Design 1900-2005, Basel 2006; On the Re-edition of Frederick Kiesler. Nucleus of Forces in Friedrich Kiesler, Designer, Ostfildern 2005) and curator (most recently Elke Krystufek, Liquid Logic, MAK, Vienna 2007; also: Peter Eisenman, Barefoot on White-Hot Walls, MAK, Vienna 2004).
tulga.beyerle@neigungsgruppe-design.org
(*1972) studied industrial design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and has worked since 1996 as a free-lance curator and journalist in architecture and design (among others, Der Standard, Domus, blueprint, Frame, MARK, H.O.M.E.). She was the curator of the Austrian contribution for the São Paulo Architecture Biennial 2007. Among others she curated the exhibitions AustriArchitecture – seven debuts from Austria in Berlin (2005) and Vienna (2006), Memphis – Kunst/Kitsch/Kult in Vienna in 2002, and Memphis – 21 Years after the Design Revolution at Kunsthalle Krems in the same year.