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Karamba, Karacho, Colani.
The man struck like a meteor when he entered the scene in the early 1970s.
German design (at that time still called “design” in core German) had established itself well and upright in a tamed Bauhaus modernism, always beautifully square, practical, straightforward.
Whoever wanted to take part, of course - we are in Germany - had to march through the institutions, one of which was particularly important: the Ulm School of Design.
And it was precisely this alma mater of functionalist model students that Berlin Lutz Colani whistled for, who recognized early on that he would be more likely to make a name for himself as Luigi.
And as a polemicist, as a thug and agitator.
“I'm not talking to the people of Ulm,” he let his fans know.
“I talk to my caretaker, to my trainees, but not to the people of Ulm.
They are criminals of the German spirit of the twenties and thirties.
Brainless criminals.
Most of the time, criminals are intelligent types, because that takes a bit of brains.
But those are the all-angular makers. "
And angular was not at all possible for Colani.
He wanted life and living and even driving to be curved, curvy, floral.
Along the lines of nature.
And based on the model of those artists who, as early as 1900, saw salvation in a design based on the organic richness of flora and fauna.
Following the example of people like Peter Behrens or Henry van de Velde.
And, above all, based on the model of the French Hector Guimard.
Boeing did not want to build the large-capacity passenger aircraft "Megalodon" from 1977
Source: POPDOM Collection © Colani Design Germany GmbH
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Because instead of going to Ulm, Colani went to study in Paris.
Had to deal with philosophy and - no kidding!
- Occupied ergodynamics.
Most of all, however, he had kept his eyes open.
In Paris you only had to take the metro and you were right in the middle of a world that saw utility buildings as sculptures.
Metro entrances, metro railings, metro grilles, metro lamps: these green creeper arrangements by the great Guimard appeared to Colani as a single homage to Mother Nature.
Festive, elegant, cheerful.
Was it possible to do something like that in Germany?
Pioneer of the electric car
Well
One can imagine that it was made difficult for the outsider.
Around 70 percent of his designs remained prototypes, so they did not go into series production.
The mushroom house with attached balls, the kits for sports cars, the “Urbi” electric car for clean city traffic (conceived back in 1971, shortly before the oil crisis and the Club of Rome's warning call about the “limits to growth”!) - none of them had any Chance of realization.
That was too futuristic.
With all the love for the culture of provocation and experimentation that arose in the 1970s and blew like a breath of fresh air over the Bauhaus-modernist, floor-cleared German post-war world.
But some companies have made it their own way.
Significantly, it was predominantly those who already enriched the German arts and crafts scene at the heyday of Art Nouveau, and even determined it to a large extent.
Didn't Villeroy and Boch have to think of Guimard and Gallé when the Colanis company started manufacturing freestanding double sinks?
Villeroy & Boch added the "double washbasin with mirror in curry yellow" from 1979 to its range
Source: POPDOM Collection Photo: Colya Zucker © Colani Design Germany GmbH
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Now you can admire it in all its beauty in Berlin's Bröhan Museum, which has once again landed a brilliant coup with its exhibition “Colani and Art Nouveau” - it stands next to a light-wood Etagère from Gallé, and the visitor sees in the mirror a silver candelabra van de Velde flashing.
Pleasure body care
Because they all form a big family who have dedicated themselves to the biomorphic forms of design.
So now your youngest member: the bathroom furniture, sparkling in mustard yellow, which is so typical of the seventies.
Personal care wants to make it a sensual pleasure.
Incidentally, the focus is on the lower body regions, which the opposite users are allowed to seductively reveal, while the mirror under the arch, which quotes Guimard's metro entrance, reserves the face of its respective owner.
Dark circles under the eyes or other signs of tiredness may not necessarily have to be seen by the partner when doing the toilet before they go out into the day or go to bed!
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Rosenthal, on the other hand, added the elegantly curved drop jugs and jugs to their repertoire - they now stand in harmony at Bröhans next to porcelain by Maurice Dufrène from 1900 and are thus allowed to bridge the abyss of time.
Only the tapered lid of the Parisian model is leveled at Colani, because his teapot is ultimately committed to the spirit of ergonomics and is supposed to be reminiscent of fast car sleds.
Float, plop down
The gorgeous, elegant TV lounger “TV-Relax” in the form of an outstretched tongue or the most famous and widespread of Colani's inventions, the plastic chair “Der Colani”, found producers and were brought to the people.
A people who have now learned to sit in a completely different way, with “Der Colani” or with the “Pool” living area, astride, sideways, their legs hanging over.
But flailing and flailing were also allowed.
Last but not least, Colani praised his products as “including aspects such as masturbation positions”.
Suitability for masturbation as a quality criterion for contemporary furniture - you have to come to that!
Luigi Colani sits on his chair “The Colani”, 1976
Source: POPDOM Collection
But Colani had to come back all his life (he died in 2019 at the age of 91) to be successful.
And he could too.
When he, adorned with a hippie collar and a giant pound on his ring finger, climbed into his chair “Der Colani” with his legs apart and threw himself into posture, photographed from below, then you suddenly knew that living can also be sexy.
Where did this knowledge go?
“Luigi Colani and Art Nouveau”, Bröhan Museum, Berlin. Until May 30th