15 Minutes of Fame: Objects in The Spotlight

What does it mean to be seen? This is the question at the heart of 15 Minutes of Fame, ADORNO’s theatrical tribute to lighting, identity, and the fleeting nature of recognition. Presented during 3daysofdesign in Copenhagen, 15 Minutes of Fame explores the “need to perform” within a culture fixated on visibility and attention. It invites us to reflect on how quickly recognition can arrive and just as quickly fade, and how, even in dormancy, objects (like people) retain presence.

Inspired by Andy Warhol’s prophecy, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes,” this immersive lighting installation gives form to that vision. Every fifteen minutes, a single lamp is ceremoniously illuminated, basking briefly in the spotlight before returning to sculptural stillness. Between activations, each lamp remains an icon-in-waiting, imbued with presence and the promise of attention.

As a satellite to Persona, this installation continues our exploration of human identity, this time through the lens of performance and recognition. The slow rotation of light becomes a metaphor for the rhythms of fame: the thrill of anticipation, the intensity of the spotlight, and the inevitable return to stillness. These moments echo a deeper cultural tension between visibility and invisibility, between being chosen and being overlooked.

Curated by Chase Drake Jensen and Martin Clausen, 15 Minutes of Fame is both a meditation on ephemerality and a celebration of individuality.

Other Circle x ADORNO

The exhibition is hosted by Other Circle, a dynamic new presence during this year’s 3daysofdesign. Situated at The Lab, Other Circle reimagines the traditional design fair experience by merging art, design, fashion, music, and food into a shared cultural ecosystem. More than an exhibition, it’s a creative commons for cross-disciplinary collaboration and expression.

Within this experimental context, 15 Minutes of Fame takes on a performative quality, positioning design as functional and sculptural.

Celebrating Diversity

Beyond its reflections on fame, 15 Minutes of Fame is an ode to diversity. The thirty-six lamps on view are as varied as humanity itself, crafted from distinct materials, forms, scales, and design philosophies. Some are avant-garde, others classical; some inspired by nature, others by geometry. Some are rooted in memory or cultural storytelling, while others push the boundaries of material and form. Seen together, they offer a luminous reminder that difference deserves to be celebrated, and that everyone is worthy of their moment to shine.

Spotlighting the Collection

Reflecting a curatorial focus on diversity, material exploration, and the expressive potential of illumination, the following works offer a glimpse into the broader collection of lamps on view.

Nature is prominently featured in pieces like Mushroom Lamp1 by Jonghoo Jeong, which pairs a real mushroom with sea stone, and GIRIA by Evelina Kudabaite, whose bark waste and natural pigment lampshade echoes the forest’s tactile rhythms. The Glacier Lamp by Elis Monsport channels the serenity of ice formations, while Cypress Table Lamp by Studio Kloak bridges past and present through its Pecky Cypress base.

At the conceptual edge is Nickel 01 by Studio Speculo, upcycled styrofoam transformed with copper, nickel, and Baltic amber, an inversion of value that turns trash into treasure. Similarly subversive is Leaky Lamp I by Pablo Ejarque-González, whose dripping silhouette, cast in ash wood, brass, and bioplastic, evokes an oil spill, a visceral critique of unsustainable systems, and a meditation on the beauty of decay. Grid Lamp by Basia Pruszyńska takes a subtler approach, turning cotton and Polish oak into a rigid, checkered structure that elevates textile to architecture.

Some works are steeped in personal narrative. Refractions by Yuna Kim is a layered reflection on cultural displacement, using hanji paper, glass, and metal to explore fractured identity through refracted light. Other pieces pursue formal clarity: Aperture Protocol by Bureau of Entropy is a masterclass in precision, its light channeled through a friction-locked aluminum grid; no screws, no glue, just geometry.

Sensuality and softness emerge in Knock-off-Neon by Ebba Lindgren, where ruched butter-yellow silk wraps a sleek LED tube, softening the industrial aesthetic with a warm, tactile glow. NEFERTITI by Marco Zelli invites playful reconfiguration, merging mirrored geometry with bold color in a modular form that blurs the line between sculpture and function.

Other lamps command presence through volume and contrast. The SCULPTURE LIGHT by NOSTUDIO is monolithic, casting theatrical shadows and glows. PISCATIO by Valentin Bauer plays with opposites, a soft filament suspended in rigid aluminum. ÄTHER by Buşra Tunç, housed in a specimen bell jar, evokes Renaissance cabinets of curiosity, revealing the hidden mechanics of light.

Together, these diverse works form a luminous chorus of perspectives. They challenge convention, celebrate individuality, and affirm the belief that difference deserves to be illuminated, both in the spotlight and in stillness.