Leading crystal jewellery house Swarovski marked its 120th anniversary last night with a stunning celebration in its home town of Wattens, Austria, hosted by the Swarovski family and attended by creative partners and media (including The Moodie Report).
The anniversary coincided with the re-opening of Kristallwelten (Crystal Worlds), one of Austria’s leading tourism attractions and a celebration of the Swarovski brand.
The evening is one of three to be held this week dedicated to marking the reopening and to the anniversary. On Monday night the company hosted its staff, while the President of Austria will be guest of honour at tonight’s final dinner.
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Swarovski’s simple but stylish tribute to 120 years of craft |
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Swarovski erected a vast temporary facility close to Kristallwelten to house guests, with superb entertainment last night provided by Swarovski Musik Wattens orchestra (originated in 1900 by company Founder Daniel Swarovski) and by UK singer FKA Twigs.
A number of the Swarovski cousins – the fifth generation to own and manage the company – greeted guests.
Member of the Executive Board Nadja Swarovski said: “We are very proud of our forefathers and what they achieved. Daniel Swarovski had a vision and a dream, inventing the crystal-cutting machine. This is a collaboration with the creative community, who to us are family.”
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Nadja, Dana and Helmut Swarovski welcome guests to last night’s celebration |
Member of the Executive Board Markus-Langes Swarovski added: “We are grateful for all your support and we hope you take inspiration from the museum here at Wattens.”
Board Member and CEO of the Consumer Goods Business Robert Buchbauer said: “Our company started with a vision, and brought glitter and sparkles to the world. We have come a long way since then. We are one of the world’s largest speciality retailers and run over 2,500 stores.
“We should also be proud that we have been able to keep this company in family hands through this fifth generation. We should honour and respect this legacy. We will hand over to a sixth generation once the time comes, though not just yet. And we will have enough ideas, we hope, to fill the next 120 years.”
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Markus-Langes Swarovski and Nadja Swarovski: Fifth generation of a family that still proudly owns and manages one of the great luxury brands |
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CEO of the Consumer Goods Business Robert Buchbauer: “We are one of the world’s largest speciality retailers and run over 2,500 stores” |
Another of the cousins that runs the family business, Executive Board Member Daniel Cohen, said: “We are proud of the traditional of innovation at Swarovski. We have reinvented ourselves constantly.”
Among the highlights of the evening was the opportunity to tour the new-look Kristallwelten, a showcase for the brand but also a blend of fantasy, art, culture, entertainment and retail. The destination attracts around 600,000 visitors a year, but the company hopes this will rise to 850,000 following its investment.
The showcase was built in 1995 to mark Swarovski’s 100th anniversary, and since then renowned names from art and design have interpreted crystal in their own way, turning the material into an experience – the Chambers of Wonder.
The facility’s singular appearance helps it stand out, in particular through the head of the Giant at the entrance, which is visible from afar.
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The company erected a spectacular temporary facility to house guests, complete with the Swarovski Musik Wattens orchestra, founded in 1900 by Daniel Swarovski |
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UK pop singer FKA Twigs provided a stunning vocal soundtrack to the evening |
For the 120th anniversary of Swarovski, after its third and so far largest expansion from 2013 to 2015, Kristallwelten was supplemented with new spaces for installations and events.
It now stretches over 7.5 hectares and has several new elements. The garden of the Giant, which surrounds the world of crystal, invites visitors to stay longer. One of the highlights is the Crystal Cloud, consisting of 800,000 hand-mounted crystals. South of the Giant, a play tower and outdoor playground landscape offer children space to play and climb. The pavilion embedded in the garden surrounds Daniel’s Café & Restaurant.
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Vice President Travel Retail Peter Zottl under the eye of the giant, as The Moodie Report takes a tour of Kristallwelten |
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The Moodie Report’s Dermot Davitt with Peter Zottl: Raising a glass to 120 years of history |
Vice President of Travel Retail Peter Zottl told The Moodie Report: “We are in Wattens, where the heart of Swarovski beats. We are in the business of amazing people and I think here we are doing a good job.
“Not many companies in our travel retail industry can boast 120 years, and few can still say they are family-owned and controlled in our consolidating industry.
“Now we have to renew our success in travel retail, as we do every day and every year; sometimes it’s easier and sometimes it’s hard. This company has been through many challenging times and we’ll come through them again.”
https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/203059561&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=falseInside the Chamber of Wonders
The Blue Hall
The Blue Hall greets visitors on entering the facility. It houses works from Salvador Dalí, Niki de Saint Phalle, John Brekke, and Andy Warhol, which surround the display’s centrepiece, the Centenar – with over 310,000 carats (62 kg) the largest hand-cut crystal in the world.
Next to this are the two smallest, precision-cut crystals from Swarovski – the Xirius Chaton and XERO Chaton. The latter is exactly the size of the tip of a feather and is the latest innovation from Swarovski, designed for the requirements of the clock, eyeglasses, and jewellery industries. A Crystal Wall 11m high and 42m long leads into the Chambers of Wonder.
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The world’s largest cut crystal on display at the spectacular museum |
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A crystal shoe that appeared in the recent hit movie Cinderella |
Mechanical Theatre
This houses the machine-driven world of designer Jim Whiting. His “Mechanical Theatre” combines humans and technology, the bizarre and the aesthetic in an extraordinary fashion show.
The Crystal Dome
The Crystal Dome was modelled 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. The dome consists of 595 mirrors that give the viewer the feeling of being inside a crystal. Nine of the mirrors are so-called “spy mirrors” that conceal art objects by various artists. The music in the Crystal Dome was created by Brian Eno.
Silent Light
At the centre of Silent Light is the spectacularly sparkling crystal tree by designers Tord Boontje and Alexander McQueen, one of the most photographed objects in Swarovski Crystal Worlds. It has 150,000 sparkling Swarovski crystals.
Into Lattice Sun
Here, South Korean artist Lee Bul looked to modernist architecture, translating it into a dramatic and utopian landscape for her Chamber of Wonder. This installation explores the interactions between visitors and space, with a staged interplay of continually changeable, mirror landscapes.
Crystal Calligraphy
The Crystal Calligraphy by American glass artist Paul Seide is his translation of Charles Baudelaire’s famous poem “The Lovers’ Wine.” His argon and neon gas-filled spiral glass tubes are blown by mouth, measure approximately 10m in length, and are enhanced with crystals.
The Ice Passage
In Tyrolean artist Oliver Irschitz’s “Ice Passage”, each step is accompanied by creaking and cracking, as if the visitor was walking on a frozen surface, with each step causing small fissures in the ice.
Transparent Opacity
Transparent Opacity by Arik Levy is an homage to the diversity of crystal and a game with an array of materials – from glass, marble, and steel to synthetic 3D prints – as well as a play on shapes and sizes.
Studio Job Wunderkammer
Everything in the Studio Job Wunderkammer revolves around the experience of space, with the apparent chaos hiding 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 her performance. A giant natural mountain crystal from Madagascar, naturally grown, is also housed here.
Eden
At Eden’s entrance, a waterfall cascades down a screen; inside, the visitor follows a path that meanders through a dense wilderness of polished brass structures, which through mirrored walls appear to go on to infinity. Also here are hidden gems in the form of crystal sculptures of up to 1.86m in height produced by Swarovski.
FAMOS
Four architectural landmarks are on display: the Taj Mahal in Agra, the Pyramid of Cheops in Giza, the New York Empire State Building, and the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow. These were created together with the crystal experts at Swarovski and brought to life with eccentric humour in the form of cryptic short films.
55 Million Crystals
“55 Million Crystals” by the British musician, producer, and concept artist Brian Eno, blends music, light, hand-painted picture components, and state-of-the-art computer technology.
Reflections
In “Reflections,” designed by the multimedia firm checkpointmedia AG, the most diverse aspects of the history of mankind and culture are presented on 300 facets on 48 polygons made of crystal.
Crystal Forest
The poetic “Crystal Forest” is a work of the Italian painter and video artist Fabrizio Plessi. This composition combines the natural material of wood with the latest video technology.
Leviathan
The sculpture “Leviathan” by Tyrolean artist Thomas Feuerstein 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. The object is comprised of over 10,000 crystals and is integrated into Fabrizio Plessi’s “Crystal Forest.”
Timeless
The Timeless area tells the history of Swarovski and crystal. The exhibition ranges from the company’s founding to famous moments on the stage and screen and blends curiosities with nostalgia, history and technology.
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Some of the installations that make Kristallwelten one of Austria’s top five tourist destinations |
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Swarovski’s retail store at Kristallwelten, the brand’s biggest point of sales worldwide, has been redesigned and expanded, with the craftsmanship of the jeweller on show at every turn |
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