Spanish Design Interprets the Spain Pavilion at the Frankfurt Book Fair

At the last Frankfurt Book Fair, held from October 19 to 23, Spain was the "Guest of Honor". With the slogan #CreatividadDesbordante (#OverflowingCreativity), Spain showcased an extensive program of cultural activities where Spanish design also played an important role.  

The 2000m2 Spanish pavilion, entitled "The theory of cherries," was designed by the Enorme and Vitamin studios. The contemporary furniture firm Andreu World furnished it with 100% sustainable sofas, chairs, and tables designed for the circular economy with Cradle to Cradle® certification, and the LZF brand illuminated the meeting area with several lamps

The design waswas inspired by the Carmen Martín Gaite's book "El cuento de nunca acabar" (The Neverending Tale).  According to Rocio Pina of the Enorme studio, "the writer observes that the same thing always happens when narrating as when eating cherries, that some stories are linked to others and we put two or three more in our mouths than we think. Books, he liked to say, are those good friends who introduce us to other good friends, as is also intended to happen in Frankfurt." So the Spain Pavilion was designed as a basket of cherries in which some stories led to others, a novel introduced a comic, a comic to a poem, a poem to a video game, a video game to a film, a film to an essay, an essay to a biography, a biography to a novel again… and so on, from format to format, #CreatividadDesbordante was traversed.

The theory of cherries turned the pavilion into a living dictionary that, like a hyperlink, linked words, languages, and stories. The main element of the event were the "cherries," three capsules that formed different stages, but there was also space for two auditoriums, a happy hour space, and a workshop area. The objective was to create spaces to meet and have fun and corners for quiet reflection. Other elements present in the pavilion were a mechanical arm that used a pen to recreate the calligraphy of some of the most significant authors of Spanish literature and a microphone that transformed words into splashes of color according to their sound.

Andreu World's furniture was used to furnish the "Cherry" and "Turquoise" stages, which hosted more than 200 cultural events organized by Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) in the pavilion. In these two stages of the pavilion that hosted the writers' meetings and cultural activities, we found the Giro Soft sofa, designed by Alfredo Haberli, the Sail chairs, created by Piergiorgio Cazzaniga, and several tables such as Nuez, by Patricia Urquiola, Triada, by Benjamin Hubert, and Quattro, by Lievore Altherr Molina. In addition, the LZF lamps lit up in the meeting area: Agatha designed by Luis Eslava and Chow created by Yonoh.