A deliciously rebellious mini hot plate
The exhibition I Will Buy Flowers Myself by Nika Zupanc at Superstudio Piu at the Milan Design Week (April 22nd to 27th) also presents an extremely charming novelty: the mini hot plate Mrs. Dalloway that Nika Zupanc designed exclusively for Gorenje. The Mrs.
Dalloway mini hot plate is deconstructing the myth that household appliances are only made for kitchens and housewives. Like most works of Nika Zupanc, it is different, boldly innovative, and playfully witty. Due to its unusual shape, it comes closer to resembling a fashion accessory than a kitchen appliance.
Being a single plate, it has a seemingly simple genetic structure. However, this is also all the simplicity you will find. The design and production processes were painstakingly delicate because the “haute couture” approach of paying a dear price for perfection was employed. The mini hot plate now fumes out all the expectations about kitchens and duties and “Hausfrauen”, and redirects your attention to a less obvious intellectual feast. This is an ode to the invisible pathologies of our everyday lives. It is a dedication to our crawling selves that are being lost somewhere between our roles and our images, between what we promise and what we actually manage to deliver.
Following the successful cooperation with the Italian design studio Pininfarina and the French designer Ora-Ïto, Gorenje has now teamed up with Slovenian designer Nika Zupanc. Her designs have introduced freshness and a gentle female touch into the often minimalistic and cold world of household appliances. Thus, the appliances are elevated to exclusive fashion accessories. Nika Zupanc is known as a bold industrial designer with a special feel for emotional extravagance. In her work, Nika Zupanc tackles the daily themes which almost iconically symbolize mediocrity, dullness, boredom, and temporal restraints. She makes intentional moves to address the constructed role of women in contemporary society. New technologies, advanced engineering and explosions of new materials are employed as new outfits for the new relations and understandings that she is putting forth to counter the established ideas. Her designs have won several professional awards and she has been hosted at numerous prominent exhibitions from London to Milan.
www.nikazupanc.com. Effectively mixing smart technology, excellent design and great value into every one of four million
appliances sold annually, Gorenje continuously raises quality standards among Europe’s leading domestic appliance manufacturers. With its innovative, technically perfect, environmentally friendly and stylish products, Gorenje aims to become the creator of the most innovative design-led home appliances in the world.
www.gorenje.com