Geo—Design Budget Airlines
Nine design research projects explore how budget airlines impact our everyday life at many scales of observation — from corporate sovereignty to international boundaries, from small airports to global carbon credit market, from material commodities to digital services, from environmental impact to unsolved trials. Through data analysis, image research, performance, oral histories, speculation, personification and sound modelling, it is demonstrated how ‘cheap’ is not just a price but a way of looking at the world.
GEO—DESIGN: Budget Airlines, We Are All The Jet Set*, features work by Design Academy alumni Sergi Casero Nieto, Flora Lechner, Gundega Strauberga, Ieva Jakusa, Rhinestone Rodeo (Job Claassen and Ellen Pearson), Qiaochu Guo, Chongjin Chen, The Ironing Board (Marta Ríos and Miguel Parrrra), Raffaello73 (Fabio Salvadori, Federico Santarini) and Cinzia Bongino.
The exhibition is curated by Martina Muzi, and features graphic design and identity by Cinzia Bongino
*(Taxes, fees and charges apply)
TICKETS & PRACTICAL INFORMATION
GEO—DESIGN: Budget Airlines. opens on 9 October and runs through Dutch Design Week until 14 November 2021. During DDW, it is accessible with a DDW ticket only, you can buy them online here or via physical ticket offices. After DDW, the exhibition will remain on display with normal entry for the museum.
The museum’s COVID-19-related rules apply, to be found at https://www.vanabbemuseum.nl.
Entrance to the exhibition is on the backside of Van Abbemuseum at Stratumsedijk 2, 5611 ND Eindhoven.
CINZIA BONGINO
The history of budget airlines is that of the designed austerity of airport terminals. The video shown in the windows of this terminal-inspired installation depicts this evolution. Based on Ryanair’s 35 years of activity, the timetable shows its network of destinations and air bases. Information about its subsidiaries runs along the rope barriers.
FLORA LECHNER
Supposedly ‘cheap’ seats are the essence of budget airlines. Three absurd reinterpretations of Ryanair Slimline seat’s promotional features—its weight, space-saving and skeleton—are shown inside a tent depicting the interior of a plane. The makeshift aesthetic contrasts the elaborately engineered processes that go into making airline seats ‘cheap’, which are depicted on a fresco.
GUNDEGA STRAUBERGA, IEVA JAKUSA
Riga International Airport has been recognized as the Third Fastest Growing European Airport since 2019, with 16 new routes announced by Ryanair for October 2021. Ryanair’s marketing strategy is to portray Riga as cheap as its flights. Traditional Latvian craft objects have been manipulated to demonstrate this. A map shows relevant flights and excerpts from interviews with tourism experts in Riga Airport.
SERGI CASERO NIETO
What was said in the bargaining table to avoid the closure of Girona airport? Extracts from media coverage and interviews with union representatives are presented as an invitation to deduce and imagine what led the Ryanair Girona cabin crew to accept worse working conditions.
RHINESTONE RODEO (Job Claassen, Ellen Pearson)
Ryanair’s neglectful customer service, advertising flops and publicity provocations have caused laughs, offense and increased ticket sales. It’s a marketing strategy usually used by celebrity publicists, not companies. The sculptures present a caricature of the brand as a person. A selection of its notorious marketing moments are detailed on the paper airplanes.
RAFFAELLO73 (Fabio Salvadori, Federico Santarini)
Ryanair quantifies noise pollution as a ratio of seats per single aircraft. The installation represents every seat of a Boeing 737 as a speaker and uses flight data of Eindhoven Airport to demonstrate that it is the frequency of flights, not the single aircraft, that is the primary pollutant.
QIAOCHU GUO, CHONGJIN CHEN
Linking jet engines with open-source portable cookstoves in developing countries are at least 13 carbon-offset projects invested in by 15 budget airlines around the world. A speculative morphosis between jet engine and cooking stove is presented through film, illustration and animation to explore the contradictions, power dynamics and mythologies of the carbon-offset supply chain.
IRAKLI SABEKIA
Breathe Normally narrates the cultural impact of budget airlines and commodified travel on post-Soviet Georgia. The soundscape uses the formal language of the aviation industry to create a comprehensive guide for successful air travel for non-Europeans. It is based on ethnographic research into the experiences of outbound travellers and migrant workers.
THE IRONING BOARD (Marta Ríos and Miguel Parrrra)
Welcome to the GEO—DESIGN: Budget Airlines Help Centre. Do you have a question, complaint, or simply want to gossip about the geopolitical forces shaping design today? Trained by Ryanair, our agents are here to assist you, please find them at the front desk. To contact us out of hours, call us on: +31 85-400 4440