LZF has had the pleasure of contributing its lighting expertise and artistry to the ARCO Madrid 2022 VIP lounge. After the life-size Big Bird delighted guests during the Spanish art fair’s 2020 edition, in 2022 LZF’s winsome Dune and Estela lamps adorned the VIP lounge—together they illuminated the space with their soft, pleasing ambience. Designed by Mayice and hand-blown by master artisan Eduard Garuti, both Dune and Estela encapsulate LZF’s natural wood veneer in a beautiful borosilicate glass diffuser: Dune with its characteristic bulb-shaped centre, and Estela with its clean, clear, single piece of borosilicate glass.

ARCO Madrid is Spain’s renowned international contemporary art fair. Launched in 1982, this year’s fair celebrated its ‘40 (+1) Anniversary’ edition, taking place from 23rd–27th February at Ifema Madrid. ARCO Madrid is an event that brings together a selection of ‘big names’ on the international gallery scene, galleries that have been present throughout the fair’s history, art collectors, and art aficionados.

Burgos y Garrido Arquitectos, a Madrid-based architecture and landscape design studio, designed the ARCO Madrid 2022 VIP lounge. Using a concept titled ‘Natural Ruins’, the studio transported twenty-five giant stones, weighing around one hundred tons, from a quarry in Segovia, Spain. This is where slate used in the building of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (a vast royal monastery constructed between 1563–1584), was extracted. Creating a space that was both intriguing and enchanting, Burgos y Garrido Arquitectos arranged the huge stones in a manner that invited guests to consider the interior: individuals were able to enjoy a unique social interaction, immersed in a setting that merged both a natural and theatrical atmosphere. 

Ginés Garrido a founding partner of Burgos y Garrido Arquitectos, explains: ‘Spatial experiences overlap in the unfolded scene, within an artificial landscape of natural rocks that direct the gaze to the beauty of nature, by exposing the representative elements of its primordial materiality. A set of rocks creates an unusual and ephemeral topography, whose very presence in the place activates the memory of another landscape.’

LZF’s Dune and Estela lamps added a wonderful feeling of warmth and natural ambience to the VIP lounge’s rocky landscape. As well as LZF, other Spanish companies were involved in creating the ARCO Madrid 2022 VIP lounge, including:  Actiu, Cosentino, Estiluz, Fama, Joquer, Lladró, Naturtex, Ondarreta, and Sancal.