Rolf Fehlbaum Bücher




A Way of Life
Notes on Ballenberg
Ballenberg is a Swiss open-air museum. It gathers over a hundred houses and the living world of the rural population from the 14th to the 19th century. Architecture, furnishings and tools were always committed in their design and execution to the needs and necessities of everyday life, and solutions were found genuinely with the available means.0Edited by Rolf Fehlbaum, entrepreneur and long-time driving force behind Vitra, the publication is an invitation to discover and explore the world of things with different eyes. It compiles observations and discoveries by designers Jasper Morrison, David Saik and architect Tsuyoshi Tane. They share a fascination with the simple, the practical and the functionally beautiful. Traces of wear and tear testify to long-lasting utility and economic common sense.0The publication is also an encouragement to designers and consumers alike to resist trends and fads and to critically evaluate the objects of everyday use in terms of utility and aesthetics.
Collectible kinetic sculptures from bygone visions of the future, in a new compact edition This compact volume explores the 172 space-themed toys in the R.F. Robot Collection held by the Vitra Design Museum. Largely produced in Japan between 1937 and 1973, these figures of robots (and the occasional astronaut) have been carefully researched and compiled over the years by Rolf Fehlbaum, former Chairman of Vitra and founder of the Vitra Design Museum, who describes them as small kinetic sculptures of great originality. Ever since the term's first appearance in Czech writer Karel ?apek's science-fiction play R.U.R. in 1921, robots have both served and taken over the work of humans, creating human dependency and, at times, a shift in the power dynamics of a society. Robots 1:2 shows the toys and their original packaging (where available, as it was seldom preserved) on a scale of 1:2, with the largest robot determining the size of the book. This conveys something of the uncanny nature of the robots and their general ambiguity, while the vivid illustrations on the boxes give an idea of the futuristic fantasies developed over the period. QR codes for some of the robots link to a page with short videos showing them in action.
An Art of Resilience
Popular Art from Brazil in the R. F. Collection
Brazil unites some of the most creative manifestations of popular art in the world. By presenting works by the legendary Mestre Vitalino and other artists from Pernambuco, the Jequitinhonha Valley and Niterói „An Art of Resilience“ fosters awareness of this amazing art of the people. In a time of roaring art prices and a narrow consensus on what is worth collecting, presenting and investing in, popular art offers a fresh and uninhibited artistic exploration of life and its challenges.