IFA 100 Years The Exhibition celebrates IFA’s centennial with a collection of vintage tech and artworks created specially for the occasion
Excitement has been building for the 100th anniversary of IFA, a show that has been a mirror of innovation throughout history, seeing the arrival of everything from TVs to mobile phones. IFA 100 Years The Exhibition honours the show’s legacy with a collection of historic consumer electronics and home appliances as well as a series of artworks that interpret IFA’s history and future.
Dating back to 1924 with a first show that hosted just 242 exhibitors, but attracted no less than 180,000 visitors, IFA is the oldest consumer electronics and home appliances trade show in the world. The IFA 100 Years exhibition commemorates the show’s impressive legacy. Featuring product samples and historic photos from the archives of some of IFA’s major exhibitors as well as IFA’s own records, the exhibition displays some of the technologies that have represented ground-breaking innovations throughout history.
At the exhibition visitors will be reminded that IFA has seen the arrival of so many pioneering technologies including radio and TV, audio cassettes, CDs, DVDs, flat TVs, mp3, mobile phones, smart phones, entertainment and games, white goods, and small appliances. They will also be able to admire vintage products like Gameboys, Walkmans, an early AEG refrigerator and Vampyr vacuum cleaner, and an original Bosch fridge as well as other novel devices from the beginning of the last century.
In addition to celebrating the evolution of innovation at IFA, the exhibition also highlights the connection between technology and art under the motto “Innovation meets Art.” IFA 100 Years features the work of eight Berlin-based artists inspired by IFA’s impressive heritage and the innovative future that lies ahead, inviting visitors to reflect on the role of technology and creativity and the connection between them.
Each piece represents a distinct thematic realm relating to IFA: radio, video, audio, online, computer and games, digital lifestyle, home appliances and networking, and creation and social media while focusing on the changes in the use and perception of technology within each of these areas.
When asked about the connection between technology and art, the exhibition’s enthusiastic curator Christian Rothenhagen, said that “one would not exist without the other and that goes both ways.” Speaking about the specificity of the topics provided to the artists, he claimed that “some of them were challenged with the themes we gave them,” yet in Mr Rothenhagen’s view, this was positive because it pushed the artists beyond their limits to produce what he called “pure gold.”
IFA 100 Years The Exhibition was originally inaugurated at the concept shopping mall Bikini Berlin, and on 17 August was moved to the historic Palais am Funkturm on the Messe Berlin exhibition grounds so that IFA visitors and exhibitors can pay a visit during this year’s show. A shop will also be available for visitors to purchase exclusive IFA Funk-otto merchandise.
IFA 100 Years The Exhibition
Palais am Funkturm, Messe Berlin
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