Der „Fall“ Forum Design / The “Case” of Forum Design

What was the reality behind the myth? In 1980 Helmuth Gsöllpointner initiated Forum Design in Linz – a major cultural project that caused a stir far and wide and was accorded an international reception. Gsöllpointner, professor at the university of Arts Linz, made a number of international experts flock to the city. Their presence, the special exhibition architecture, of which Christopher Alexander’s famous Linz Café is an example, and the weighty publication Design ist unsichtbar [design is invisible] gave the forum design mythic status. Yet soon local infighting and acrimonious quarrels began to erupt; sponsors withdrew from the project and public subsidies were stopped. The result was a complete financial meltdown with subsequent lawsuits and criminal convictions for some of the individuals in charge of the project. DER “FALL” FORUM DESIGN casts a look back at these events and reunites their protagonists and actors. its purpose is to understand what happened at the time and to give a voice to events that have long been veiled in silence. The catalogue will explore how cultural follow-on effects develop and what a legacy lies dormant here, waiting for Linz to reactivate it.

 

WHAT // EXHIBITION