IN SERIEN – 40 years of serien.lighting Light. Form. Material.

Four decades ago, the then design students Manfred Wolf and Jean-Marc da Costa founded a company with the idea of combining innovative luminaire design with a high standard of technology and craftsmanship. Since then, serien.lighting has stood for an uncompromising focus on design quality, technical expertise, innovation and avant-garde standards like almost no other luminaire manufacturer. In March 2024, the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt am Main provided the lighting manufacturer with a space of almost 300 m² for a comprehensive exhibition and retrospective to mark its 40th anniversary. A stringent exhibition concept allowed visitors to immerse themselves in the world of serien.lighting.

The exhibition title IN SERIEN described the initial motivation that led to the founding of the company and also gave it its name: The exploration of formally reduced items and a contemporary aesthetic based on serial production, which used new technologies to set itself apart from the expressive one-offs of the 1980s.

The exhibition impressively demonstrated how consistently this underlying philosophy has been reinterpreted in formal and technological terms by the designers and their team over four decades. The extensive design work of Wolf and da Costa shows how conceptual continuity combined with lively creativity can become a signature that always remains recognizable, even with changing technologies.

The creators designed a straightforward exhibition concept that reflected the design, development and history of the company. This concept translated the idea of delicate objects within a space, which forms the basis of serien.lighting’s product design, into a large-scale display. The designers Wolf and da Costa followed the strict geometry of Richard Meier’s museum architecture and presented the anniversary show as a modular grid, in which all designs were presented on an equal footing. Just like in individual shop windows, both early lights and current models were on display. Special solutions, e.g. for synagogues and libraries, were also featured, as well as books, catalogs and posters from 40 years of company history. Furthermore, projections offered a look back at the company’s history and provided insights into outstanding projects where serien.lighting luminaires ensure excellent lighting.