Design of typography and signage for the painted wall text 'Italia' by artist Jens Haaning – The piece is part of a solo exhibition at the Galleria Franco Soffiantino, Torino, Italy
In 2004 Jens Haaning wrote ‘Deutschland’ on the wall of a barn in the small town of Tewel-Moor in Germany. The country name was spelt in its native spelling. Although the strategy here is the same, the work triggers different reactions based on the respective countries’ relationship to its history. Germany’s name automatically conjures up the past. This work and the works that would follow it were only shown in their respective countries.
A typeface was designed for this purpose. The primary objective in the typeface design was to create anonymity – a typeface free from any cultural connections or connotations and so in that sense impressionable only by the observers perception.
In 2004 Jens Haaning wrote ‘Deutschland’ on the wall of a barn in the small town of Tewel-Moor in Germany. The country name was spelt in its native spelling. Although the strategy here is the same, the work triggers different reactions based on the respective countries’ relationship to its history. Germany’s name automatically conjures up the past. This work and the works that would follow it were only shown in their respective countries.
A typeface was designed for this purpose. The primary objective in the typeface design was to create anonymity – a typeface free from any cultural connections or connotations and so in that sense impressionable only by the observers perception.
installation view
| year |
2011 |
| place |
Torino, IT |
| project |
Italia |
| client |
Jens Haaning
Acclaimed Danish artist, who invokes social borders, emphasizing issues of co-existence and the exclusion of marginalized groups. Through open-ended representations of foreign cultures fused with symbols of the majority culture, Haaning makes the artwork’s effect on the viewer its primary focus. jenshaaning.com |
| credit | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License, unless otherwise noted. |
