Svarovski Crystal Worlds – The Sparkle of Innsbruck
by Prashant Kapadia/ NHN
Every artist and every designer can tell another story with Swarovski crystal. The wealth of interpretations is inexhaustible, and there will never be a point at which all of the ideas involving crystal as a material have been depleted. This is precisely the artistic principle upon which Swarovski Crystal Worlds is based, both inside the Chambers of Wonder and the sculptures and installations in the garden. Internationally and nationally renowned artists, designers, and architects have interpreted crystal in their own unique ways, creating their own artistic signatures from and with crystal. This means that every encounter with art in Swarovski Crystal Worlds is also a highly personal engagement with the creative mind behind it. A special highlight is the individual fragrance that perfectly underlines the visitors’ multisensory experience with aromas and essences created exclusively for Swarovski Crystal Worlds.
The Blue Hall
Upon entering the Blue Hall, visitors are surrounded by the magical International Klein Blue, which goes back to the French artist Yves Klein and conveys a sense of security and closeness. Although this blue is considered one of the cold colors, it has a warm and energetic feel here. Works of worldrenowned artists like Salvador Dalí, Niki de Saint Phalle, John Brekke, and Andy Warhol surround the display’s centerpiece, the Centenar – with over 310,000 carats (62 kg) the largest hand-cut crystal in the world.
Its 100 precisely hand-cut facets symbolize Swarovski’s 100th anniversary in 1995. Directly next to it are the two smallest, precision-cut crystals from Swarovski – the Xirius Chaton and XERO Chaton. The latter is exactly as large as the tip of a feather and is the latest innovation from Swarovski, designed especially for the creative requirements of the clock, eyeglasses, and jewelry industries. A Crystal Wall eleven meters high and 42 meters long leads directly into the Chambers of Wonder.
Mechanical Theatre
The enjoyment of transformation gives wings to fantasy – and moves the machine-driven world of Jim Whiting. His “Mechanical Theatre” combines humans and technology, the bizarre and the aesthetic in a fashion show out of the ordinary.
The protagonists are an Adonis and a “Walking Woman,” who represent the relationship between man and woman. Rigid objects suddenly spring to life and clothes fly and dance through the air as if by magic. The music in the Mechanical Theatre was composed by Silvio Borchardt, and the technology provides evidence of Swarovski’s expertise in precision mechanics.
The Crystal Dome
The dome of the Crystal Dome was modeled after Sir Richard Buckminster Fuller’s (1895–1983) geodesic dome. The term geodesic is used in mathematics to describe the theoretically shortest distance between two points on a curved surface. Geodesic domes are particularly stable, especially considering the relatively small amount of material used to build them.
The dome of the Crystal Dome consists of 595 mirrors that give the viewer the feeling of being inside a crystal. Eight of the mirrors are so-called “spy mirrors” that conceal fascinating art objects by various artists. The music in the Crystal Dome was created by Brian Eno.
Silent Light
At the center of “Silent Light” is the eponymous, spectacularly sparkling crystal tree by designers Tord Boontje and Alexander McQueen, one of the most photographed objects in Swarovski Crystal Worlds.
Its 150,000 sparkling Swarovski crystals, which inspired Tord Boontje to create a complete Chamber of Wonder, evoke images of a bone-chillingly cold and yet heartwarmingly romantic winter landscape. Especially in the spring and summer, this miracle world creates a magical contrast to the reality outside the door. The design bears the typical imprimatur of Tord Boontje, in whose work nature plays a starring role.
Into Lattice Sun
For “Into Lattice Sun”, South Korean artist Lee Bul looked to modernist architecture as her muse, translating it into a metropolitan, dramatic, and utopian landscape for her Chamber of Wonder. This installation explores the interactions between visitor and space. This deliberately staged interplay of the continually changeable, iridescent mirror landscape offers visitors constantly new illusions of width and depth, inviting viewers to think about themselves and their position within the space.
Ready to Love
Indian star designer Manish Arora loves working with crystal. His design vocabulary is characterized by expressive storytelling and brash, vibrant colors. His Chamber of Wonder Ready to Love beckons visitors to enter a fantastical world full of emotions.
A twinkling stairway replete with sparkling messages of love leads to the colorful utopia created by this exceptional talent from India. Here, the facade of an Indian temple reveals itself in dazzling neon light: the Palace of Love. The installation is built around a core of 19 heart-fairies, which have been fashioned using traditional techniques of Indian craftsmanship.
The Ice Passage
At first glance, Tyrolean artist Oliver Irschitz’s “Ice Passage” is an empty corridor; it does not come alive until you step inside. As you place your foot on the floor, a series of crystalline tracks start to appear. Light follows as well, and the more visitors dare to venture in, the brighter and more luminescent the surroundings become. Each step is accompanied by mysterious and sometimes alarming creaking and crackling – just as if you were actually on a frozen surface, with each step causing small fissures in the ice.
Transparent Opacity
Arik Levy’s “Transparent Opacity,” and the 2017 addition of his EmotionalFormation installation, are an homage to the diversity to be found in crystal, a playful reworking of forms and dimensions, as well as of a variety of different materials, ranging from glass and marble to steel and plastic 3-D prints.
Some of the exhibition pieces invoke the familiar silhouette of the cut chaton, while other works reach deep into the abstract realm of natural, archaic crystalline shapes. Emotional Formation resembles a labyrinth in which the visitor wanders from one section to the next, discovering new structures and unique perspectives along the way. The interaction between the lighting and the space itself, as well as with the artworks housed there, makes for a contrasting play of light and shadows.
Chandelier of Grief
The Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is exhibiting one of her most spectacular mirror installations to date in Wattens, entitled “Chandelier of Grief.”
The central element is a rotating chandelier of Swarovski crystal, whose luster comes to life in a room that is completely lined with mirrors.
Her largescale solo shows in Mexico City, Rio, Seoul, Taiwan, and in Chile have attracted more than five million visitors over the past few years. In particular, her “Infinity Mirror Rooms” caused an international sensation. The only permanent installation of Yayoi Kusama’s work in Europe is on display here at Swarovski Crystal Worlds.
Studio Job Wunderkammer
For their installation, the designer duo Studio Job let themselves be inspired by the term “Chamber of Wonder” itself to draw inspiration; today, the term signifies a wondrous, strange, all-encompassing spatial experience.
Everything in the Studio Job Wunderkammer accordingly revolves around a holistic experience of space. Color, shape, composition and concept, initially giving the effect of a fairground brimming with exuberant color, invite visitors to make their own discoveries.
The apparent chaos hides thousands upon thousands of short stories in the shape of movement, music, reflections, and slight allusions to modern society.
La Primadonna Assoluta
The star soprano Jessye Norman celebrated a spectacular performance at the Crystal Dome, singing the final aria, “Thy hand, Belinda,” from Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. A separate Chamber of Wonder was dedicated to this moving performance. A giant natural mountain crystal from Madagascar, naturally grown and impressive in its size, provided the counterpoint to the man-made art form of music and voice. Whoever touches the mountain crystal feels its concentrated energy in the form of a subtle warmth.
Eden
The idea behind the Eden Chamber of Wonder is to create a landscape that evokes one of the strongest primal responses in humans: the forest. But Eden is no ordinary forest – it is a fantastical and archaic primeval world in an abstract interpretation. At its entrance, a mighty waterfall cascades down a screen into the depths; inside, the visitor follows a path that meanders through a dense wilderness of simple polished brass structures, which through mirrored walls appear to go on to infinity. This is where the wanderer encounters strange, hidden gems in the form of crystal sculptures of up to 1.86 meters in height produced by Swarovski. They emerge as beacons of light from the dark, like strange, exotic birds or reptiles, flowers, or fruit, symbolizing the magnificence of nature and the origins of life.
FAMOS
In FAMOS, the Russian artist duo, Blue Noses, with their notorious, madcap performances, meets Swarovski’s legendary art of cutting crystal. Four architectural landmarks are on display in a crystalline dimension that has yet to be surpassed: the Taj Mahal in Agra, the Pyramid of Cheops in Giza, the New York Empire State Building, and the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow. These monumental architectural achievements were created together with the crystal experts at Swarovski and brought to life with eccentric humor in the form of cryptic short films.
55 Million Crystals
“55 Million Crystals” by the British musician, producer, and concept artist Brian Eno is a synthesis of ambient music, light, hand-painted picture components, and state-of-the-art computer technology that merge into a grandiose object that changes with barely perceptible transitions and produces a meditative effect. This redefined the term “original”: While we normally understand an artwork to be individual, static, and everlasting, “55 Million Crystals” is an absolutely unique original at any moment. No one else has ever seen what you see in this particular moment, and no one else will ever see it quite this way again.
Heroes of Peace
With the Heroes of Peace installation, Swarovski Crystal Worlds is dedicating one of its Chambers of Wonder to the theme of peace, and honoring the vision of the artist and curator André Heller. It presents key messages from winners of the Nobel Peace Prize and other people who have dedicated their lives to the important issue of peace, such as Bertha von Suttner, Pablo Picasso, Nelson Mandela, John Lennon, and Yoko Ono. Innovative projection technology is used to allow visitors to encounter life-sized holograms of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Albert Einstein, and Rigoberta Menchú.
El Sol
Fernando Romero’s El Sol, formed from 2,880 custom-made Swarovski crystals, is an exploration of humankind’s relationship with the sun. This large structure is exactly one billion times smaller than the sun itself. At the heart of the artwork is a sphere of LEDs, whose light is split by the inner facets of the precisely cut crystals in such a way that it creates a dynamic surface reminiscent of the sun.
The inspiration for El Sol was the remarkable geometry of the pyramids built by the Aztec and Mayan people. In this way, Romero’s creation is an homage to his Mexican cultural heritage. At the same time, his structure is also based on modern technologies. Three months of design and development were needed before the drawings were ready, and it took the technicians more than 350 hours to construct the artwork.
Timeless
The Timeless area tells the history of Swarovski and crystal in all of its historical facets. An exciting exhibition that ranges from the company’s founding to magical moments on the stage, screen, and runway juxtaposes curiosities and glamour with nostalgia, history, and technology. “Timeless Journey,” allows visitors to experience a fairy tale in a virtual-reality installation that is inspired by the numerous milestones of Swarovski’s history.
British art director and set designer Simon Costin provided the script. “Timeless” here means that we should forget our own time as we experience the changing spirit of the times from 1895 to the present day and observe epoch-making exhibits. The architects and museum designers at HG Merz were responsible for creating this narrative flow in cooperation with the Swarovski Corporate Archive.
ART IN THE GARDEN
In the garden around the charismatic head of the Giant, you will find spaces of beauty, inspiration, and energy, care, aesthetics – and legends. An astounding landscape emerged in the course of the generous expansion of Swarovski Crystal Worlds, and it fits naturally into the mountainous landscape of Tyrol. It fires the imagination while also conveying knowledge from the past and present. Internationally renowned and regional artists and designers from the contemporary art scene, as well as famous architects, have left their creative marks in the garden of the Giant.
Architects s_o_s architekten are responsible for the visitor arrival area. Based on the creative approach of designer duo CAO PERROT in combining art and landscape architecture to create spaces for dreaming, they have placed a wide and expansive roof resting on birch trunks as a threshold to the garden and to the Grand Plaza in front. Visitors making their way through the garden of the Giant, surrounded by the blossoming colorfulness of the different types of plants conceived by the British garden designer Tony Howard, can marvel at objects from such artists as Werner Feiersinger, Sylvie Fleury, Bruno Gironcoli, Martin Gostner, and Alois Schild. Taking inspiration from water as a precious resource, Fredrikson Stallard has reinterpreted its earlier work in the Prologue series and decorated it with 8,000 Blue Shade crystals to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Swarovski Waterschool in 2015. Depending on the position of the sun, the crystals refract and reflect daylight, energizing their surroundings in the garden of the Giant.
Prologue III is the beginning and the end – a cycle of infinite potential. A singular Crystal Cloud floats over the black Mirror Pool, constantly changing its appearance according to the weather and the rhythms of nature. The green maze in the form of a hand invites the visitor to explore and play hide-and-seek. A slightly ascending path through an alpine garden with rare and indigenous plants from the Alps leads visitors to the observation deck on the hills above the Chambers of Wonder at Swarovski Crystal Worlds. The Roman Excavations offer exciting insights into ancient history.
Crystal Cloud: a natural phenomenon made of crystals The crowning piece of the new garden is the Crystal Cloud, created by Andy Cao and Xavier Perrot. This monumental installation, consisting of some 800,000 hand-mounted Swarovski crystals, drifts above the black Mirror Pool, inviting visitors to pause for a moment and be inspired. With a surface of around 1,400 square meters, this mystical masterpiece is the largest work of its kind in the world. A descending path draws visitors to the Mirror Pool where the crystals’ light is captured like stars shimmering in the nocturnal sky – even in broad daylight. They are accompanied by 2,000 sparkling crystal fireflies dancing through the air. Towering over the center of the Mirror Pool is Tyrolean artist Thomas Feuerstein’s sculpture “Leviathan,” made up of over 10,000 crystals. “Leviathan” refers to the Biblical sea monster on the one hand and, on the other, to the eponymous publication by Thomas Hobbes from 1651 about government and the state. Its meaning refers to the oldest description of society as a network: The whole is created only in a reciprocal network of relationships, symbolized here by the interplay of the crystals.
Roman Excavations: a window on the past Swarovski Crystal Worlds is a place where the past and present are intertwined. The Roman Excavations, which give a glimpse into Tyrolean life in Roman times, provide vivid testimony to this. During extensive reconstruction work in September 2014, walls and collapsed sections of Roman buildings, and other archaeological material from the Roman period came to light. According to archaeologists, these are fragments from a Roman country estate dating back to the third century A.D. The Roman Excavations are displayed as a “natural Chamber of Wonder”, and an especially exciting part of the find was a treasure of extraordinary value: 702 silver coins known as Antoninians, minted for the Roman emperors between 238 and 251 A.D, and unearthed after nearly two thousand years.
CULINARY DELIGHTS
Besides nourishment for the mind, Swarovski Crystal Worlds also offers culinary delights at Daniels Kristallwelten. Here too, the overall architectural concept follows the crystalline parameters embedded in the garden of the Giant.
The whole world is welcome at Daniels Kristallwelten, which serves international, regional, and, most particularly, seasonal cuisine. Desserts are made in-house as well. The atmosphere is truly exceptional: In this airy pavilion suffused with light, designed by the Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta, visitors feel as if they were sitting right in the middle of the garden of the Giant. Gently curved pillars and ceilings accentuate the impression of flowing forms and light. The design company MARCTHOMAS produced a new design for the restaurant’s public area in 2017, giving the space a unique feel, flooded with light during the day and suffused with a subtle glimmer in the evening. Guests can enjoy regional and seasonal fresh delicacies, diverse menus, and an uninterrupted view of nature. In the entrance area of Daniels Kristallwelten, a specially designed scent of fresh aromas and essences such as tangerine, jasmine, and patchouli also contributes to the multisensory experience of the visitors.
The “Fat Bus” directly behind the entrance building is the work of Austrian artist Erwin Wurm. It is not only a one-of-a-kind, eye-catching sculpture, but also a fully functional hot dog stand that offers guests fortifying refreshments before or after their visit. Erwin Wurm’s trademark is his reworking of everyday objects in his art. Pickles, hot dogs, and houses, for instance, are some of the objects he has used so far. For Swarovski Crystal Worlds, the artist chose the VW bus, once the symbol of 1960s hippie culture, and now a truly timeless icon. You can still recognize the VW classic in “Fat Bus.” In keeping with the sculptor’s artistic style, however, he has uncoupled the object from its primary function, creating something that seems, to the viewer, both familiar and, at the same time, a little bit off.
The sausage-shaped tables created by Erwin Wurm specifically for this installation, perfectly round out the humorous effect of this work of art.
The Crystal Bar in the Swarovski Kristallwelten Store, with its sparkling ambience, serves refreshing drinks. The restaurant and Bar are freely accessible to all – without the need to first visit the Chambers of Wonder – thus making them an ideal meeting place for the whole family or business partners
SHOPPING IN THE GIANT
After an excursion through the Chambers of Wonder and the Timeless area – or passing directly through the Store entrance, which was designed by Snøhetta and features a captivating light and sound installation – visitors reach the Swarovski Kristallwelten Store. This spacious shopping landscape showcases the diverse nature of crystal as a material, as well as Swarovski’s remarkable power of innovation, and strong links with the world of fashion and design. The experience is heightened by an elegant scent created specifically for the shopping landscape. With a touch of glamour and sensuality, it conveys the essence of Swarovski Crystal Worlds on a completely unexpected level.
The Swarovski Kristallwelten Store, designed by general contractor s_o_s architekten, is literally a landscape that meanders like a river. In some parts, the spectacular “Starry Mosaic Sky dome” provides a canopy overhead, set with black mosaic tiles handcrafted by Bisazza in innovative conjunction with Swarovski crystals. Beneath the dome lies the “City of Glass”, the creation of Melli Ink. Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch and Buckminster Fuller, this artwork presents a utopian view of the future in glass, crystal, and mountain crystal. The combination of the dome and its artwork create a unique setting for an extensive brand portfolio of the latest extraordinary fashion and couture jewelry from Swarovski. The collection includes creations by world-famous designers – each one distinctive, glamorous, and on trend. Yet, all the product brands in the Swarovski Kristallwelten Stores share one distinctive characteristic: the unmistakable Swarovski style. Since 1895, the Swarovski name has signaled sophisticated design expertise and a love of detail.
Countless products crafted from or with Swarovski crystal quicken the hearts of collectors, crystal lovers, technical experts, and anyone who loves to give or receive gifts that sparkle. They all find a huge array of gift ideas and mementos at the Swarovski Kristallwelten Stores. Since the first crystal mouse was created in 1976, Swarovski has been famous worldwide for its collections of both crystal and functional items that add a special sparkle and refinement to interior spaces. Precision optical equipment from Swarovski Optik makes long-distance observation an entirely new experience.
Swarovski Kristallwelten souvenir jewelry is available exclusively in the Swarovski Kristallwelten Stores and features items specifically themed to their local area. The love of detail is evident in motifs like the iconic Giant in Wattens, St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, or the Golden Roof (Goldenes Dachl) in Innsbruck. SCS members are warmly welcomed to the VIP Lounge, which is open to all those who are or would like to become members of the Swarovski Crystal Society. The spacious shopping landscape is also open on Saturdays and Sundays until 19:30.
Our Experience
Svarovski Crystal Worlds is an attraction like no other. It is one of the most iconic attraction of Austria and very often its entrance (the Giant) is used as a image for representing Austria tourism.
The whole experience is amazing. After clicking photos at the entrance, you proceed inside the Crystal Worlds and right after the entrance you will be in awe to see the world’s largest jewelry stone. It is a 300000 carat stone and one of those things which really make a mark on your memory.
Right from this moment to the end of the tour, room after room, you will be more and more amazed. Svarovski rightly said that each artist interprets and translates crystals differently and we couldn’t agree more to it.
The Svarovski Crystal World is a must see. Whether you are staying in Innsbruck, Vienna, Munich or Salzburg, it is really worth to make the trip to the Svarovski Crystal Worlds atleast once in your lifetime.
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