September Shines: Little Sun Diamond Launches Globally!

The month of September had been fully focused on the launch of our new product, the luminous and intricately designed Little Sun Diamond. The Little Sun Diamond has been introduced for our 5-year anniversary, and sparkles with light and comes with a built in stand. Here’s a recap of our launch events!

BERLIN, GERMANY

We started the month with our Berlin launch, which took place at our HQ, on September 7th. We invited our exclusive retail partners to celebrate their support over the years, as well as local press to have a look at our HQ and hear from Olafur and the team about the latest addition to the Little Sun family.

When Little Sun started, “it was very much about health,” Olafur recounts, “but we wanted to focus on the positive: it is a project about solar energy, but it is mainly a project about things we have in common around the world. And the necessity of light is something we share.” (quoted from The Beam – read the full article here).

After the press Q&A with Olafur and Felix, the visitors got a chance to visit the whole studio.

Katharina Dippold from Die Welt writes:

“From extremely thin, pastel coloured discs made out of mouth-blown glass, polyhedron objects to cozy sofas with fur cushions, your glance stops at a big wood table with a transparent crystal sphere. It fits well Olafur Eliasson, because the Danish-Icelandic artist is not only working with light and water, he is also passionate about the future of the planet.”  (View full article here).

We finished the day with an inspiring talk by Olafur, who spoke about the Solar Diamond in all its glory, and his vision for the future of Little Sun, bringing people closer together through the power of the sun. Viertel/Vor sums up the importance of Little Sun and solar:

“ Electrical light is not a matter of fact. But sunlight is. Someone who is tackling solar power goals gains knowledge and esteem for resources. Someone who supports Little Sun makes energy for himself less abstract and provides access to energy in Africa.” (View full article here).

Thanks everyone for joining! We hope all our guests went home as inspired by Olafur as Jakob from Dandy Diaries: “I left the studio illuminated. You can’t say it differently.”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Mid month, we were in New York to unveil the sparkling Solar Diamond to the United States! The MoMa Design Store hosted a Little Sun event, where Olafur held a reception with U.S. based partners and friends of Little Sun (such as Chelsea Clinton, Paloma Duran, Aggie Gund, and Klaus Biesenbach).

The launch at MoMa also sparked a conversation about the need for energy in hurricane affected Puerto Rico (and other Carribean areas), and led to several initiatives by Klaus Biesenbach, the MoMa Store, Bloomberg and Little Sun to bring Little Suns to populations who urgently need security lights.

We also set up a fundraiser to share light in the face of darkness, and to get power units to those who need them. So far, we have partnered with Chicago based Metropolis Coffee and Casa Puertorriquena to bring solar lights and solar powered phone chargers to Puerto Rico. You can donate here.

Little Sun Diamond: Artist Olafur Eliasson creates solar-powered lamp to help billions without electricity from Little Sun on Vimeo.

GLOBAL GOALS WORLD CUP

The next day, the Little Sun tem had the pleasure to attend the Global Goals World Cup, a soccer tournament raising awareness for the Sustainable Development Goals – with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as referee! Goals were scored for gender equality, and you can view more about the GGWC here.

The winning team, Moving the Goalposts who travelled all the way from Kilifi, Kenya received brightly shining Little Suns as gold medals. Congratulations to Moving the Goalposts and all the other teams involved!

Paloma Duran, Director at UNDP’s Sustainable Development Goals Fund, spoke to Olafur about the Sustainable Development Goals, and how Little Sun is aligned with working towards achieving these goals. “The work with art and especially with some artists is something completely innovative and new, especially in the UN where we are trying in the SDG fund to engage all the actors to improve the lives of the people. This type of thing, involving access to light, is going to be very effective especially in countries and situations where people do not have access to any electricity,” stated Paloma Duran, Director, UNDP, Sustainable Development Goals Fund.

Overall, a successful trip to New York, where topics such as climate change and sustainability are of rising interest despite (and because of) the latest governmental statements.

LONDON

Later this month, we visited London for London Design Week. We presented the Diamond and had our famous Sunlight Graffiti booth at Darc Room, a creative lighting exhibition, where participants were able to play around with our Little Sun Original. Felix Hallwachs was also a speaker for a lecture entitled ‘Can Art Change The World? How Olafur Eliasson’s Little Sun Solar Project is Connecting People and Sharing Light.’

To find out more about Darc Room, visit: https://www.darcroom.com/principles/

For more information on Sunlight Graffiti (and for a special promotional code to get 15% off of Little Sun), visit https://www.darcroom.com/little-sun-sunlight-graffiti/

TORONTO

The last trip of the month for Little Sun was to Toronto, Canada for another Sunlight Graffiti booth at the first, and hopefully not last, edition of EDIT, the Expo for Design, Innovation and Technology. A former soap factory was transformed into an exhibition space for all kinds of projects, presenting ideas for a better future. Little Sun was a part of the EDUCATE floor, curated by Kentaro Toyama, and presenting ideas on how to empower the next generation and break cycles of poverty and discrimination. If you are based in Toronto, the expo is on going until October 8th!

Retail launch partners
Germany

taz.shop

KaDeWe

Buchhandlung Walther König

Plan International

UK

Tate Modern

Switzerland

Fondation Beyeler

Denmark

Politiken Plus

Norway
Astrup Fearnley Museet

Iceland
Marshall House

USA
MoMA Design Store

To download the press release, click here

Posted inArt, Blog, Education, Events