Marco Siebertz and a guest in front of the 100 CUPS. Photo: Carsten Fork

Last Sunday the exhibition “100 CUPS” as part of the “new talents 2008 – the junge biennale koeln” closed its doors. Marco Siebertz must have been happy with the result of those 9 days in the Cologne docklands “Rheinauhafen”. Especially on the weekends hundreds of visitors strolled in and got fascinated by the 100 paper cups that strung orderly on the CUPboard.

The designer, who was invited to show his talent on this new interdisciplinary biennale, is interested in objects of everyday life and was always wondering where all those paper cup come from and why it is such a growing trend. Involving the psychologist Darina Barooah, he did an analysis about the social implications of “paper cupping”. He found out that the paper cup e.g. is a strong symbol for our performance society: “The cup is a strong symbol. It says: look here! I got not time to sit and relax in a café. I’m already heading towards my next appointment. I’m important.” Moreover Marco Siebertz thinks that the paper cup will be an ersatz (replacement) for the more and more outlawed cigarette. “There are certain similarities in the attributes: as a cigarette, the Coffee To Go is made of paper, becomes warm, it gives you access to a druglike substance, you can grab hold of it and most important: you can suck it!”

As the design researcher did not want to strain the visitors with too much analytical input, he decided to give the exhibition a visual centre that was meant to attract interest to the visitors – what it did indeed! Siebertz produced 100 variations of paper cups that partly refered to the analytical part, but also where connected to completely different (e.g. political or social) contexts. Those mostly satirical designs opened the chance to the viewer spending more time with an object that is usually a mere transient good: you drink the coffee and throw it away.

Some CUPS: the LoC(k)-UP, War-on-Terror-CUP, Social-CUP, Free CUP and Tele-CUP - Photo: Carsten Fork

There is for example the ”Hurry-(C)UP” – a paper cup with a hole at the lower part that is closed by a removable strip. When you follow the instructions saying “open here” and you remove the strip there’s not much time left to empty the cup without spilling most of your coffee. “This cup is a reference to our accelerated lifestyle”, says the designer. Or there is the “Pay-Attention-CUP” which has ten holes that the user has to concentrated upon keeping them closed with his fingers for not pouring the coffee.”T(w)o-Coffee-Go” however is a more satirical one: two cups with legs that walk together.

A bit sterile, but chique: the freshly inaugurated Rheinauhafen. - Photo: Carsten Fork

The exhibition received a lot of feedback. Many visitors drafted and designed their own ideas on blank paper cups, newspapers reported about it, e.g. the “Kölner Stadtanzeiger“, newspaper of the Cologne region. As also many asked for pictures of the exhibition, ROGER LiVE will continue publishing one cup a day from the exhibition.

A big thank you goes to Carsten Fork for providing the pictures. There is also an audio guide description in German that explains the exhibition.