profession: pilot career: actor - Jet Aviation

01 Crystal World’s Ice Passage lights
up as visitors move through
02 Salvador Dali melts time in
the entry hall
03 Exhibits are designed to
trigger the imagination
The best-known attraction in Wattens
also belongs to Swarovski. It is Kristall-
welten, or Crystal Worlds, a series of
exhibits dedicated to crystal. The center
was created in 1995 under the direction
of the Austrian multi-media artist Andre
Heller. It was built to celebrate Swarov-
ski’s 100th anniversary and proved so
popular that it was expanded twice.
02
03
Crystal Worlds has 14 Chambers of
Wonder, guarded by the “giant” whose
head serves as the building’s entrance.
Giants play an important role in the folk-
lore of the region, and they are always
assigned positive characteristics. This
Wonderland in Innsbruck
Swarovski’s Innsbruck store, just 13 kilometers from the company’s head-
quarters in Wattens, Austria, is in the middle of the old town. It is near the
famous “Golden Roof,” the balcony roof that was decorated with 2,657
fire-gilded copper tiles in 1500 for the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I.
The store is in “The Golden Rose,” an even older building that dates to the
15th century.
Together with the Wattens Crystal Worlds, this store sells certain products
that cannot be purchased anywhere else in the world. It also houses exhibits
in the room downstairs, which is painted black and contains century-old
barrel vaults. It once displayed Elton John’s red piano, and there was also
an exhibit of dresses that belonged to Shirley Bassey, the Welsh singer who
recorded the theme songs to the movies Gold Finger, Diamonds are Forever
and Moonraker. The most dramatic of her crystal-covered dresses weighed
30 kilograms.
The current display is Winter Wonderland by the Dutch designer Tord
Boontje. Crystal, mirrors, fur, white steel shapes and small bright lights
create a dramatic effect against the black walls. The room is turned
into a kind of garden of winter images – creative, intertwined and somewhat
mystical. Boontje has said he was inspired by his young daughter,
an influence that can be seen in elements of fairy tales and innocence.
giant traveled the world collecting stories and then settled in Wattens to tell the
stories and protect the crystals. Chambers of Wonder can be found in castles in
the region, where they were filled with treasures and curiosities and served as a type
of entertainment.
The blue entrance hall exhibits the world’s largest crystal, the Centenar, which was
created for the 100th birthday celebration. It has 300,000 carats, 100 facets and
weighs 62 kilograms. Next to it is the smallest crystal with 17 facets and a diameter
of just 0.8 millimeters.There are also art works by Keith Haring, Niki de Saint Phalle,
Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol there. An 11-meter-high crystal wall stands on one
side of the room and leads visitors back into the 14 chambers. The theme in the
chambers is creativity. They seem to be experiments in what can be done when
stories are interpreted by means of light, beauty and pattern. Crystal Worlds is a look
at all the dimensions and possibilities of crystal, in a way that reflects the spirit and
history of Swarovski. Creative applications of solid technologies do not only entertain.
They have also kept the company successful for over 100 years.
Outlook 02/2008
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