Arts Thread

Above: 1. Dutch Design Week launch / 2. Fluid Boundary by Yanjin Wu/ 3. Studio Sol, Wearing Chairs While Sitting On Pants/ 4. Julie Helles Erikson/ 5. Filter Family by Studio Lonk

Revolution is in the air. The momentum here in Eindhoven has been building over the past few years. Last year’s theme for Dutch Design Week was If Not Us Then Who?, 2017’s theme was stretching the capacity of design to take on the world’s problems.

This year If Not Now, Then When had an urgency that mirrors the feeling of many of us that time is running out to deal with issues like climate emergency, impoverished political representation and digital/physical representation led by technological kingpins that may not always have our best interests at heart.

The launch of Dutch Design Week, which I fondly compare to the pomp and majesty of The Eurovision Song Contest each year, was this year a rebel rousing placard waving, chanting display of a community bound together by an anger at the current state of world affairs and also, importantly, a sense of empowerment that design can help shift things to a better place. The launch had the right mix of theatre and message, which is not always easy to get right when you’ve got the politics of design organisations and partner interests to play to as well.

And so on the Saturday morning, my 9^th year at Dutch Design Week, I ventured out to join the press tour. My first visit was in the Campina area, to the old milk factory to see the Design Academy Eindhoven Graduate Exhibition 2019.

I’d got it wrong, the press tour was starting over at Strijp-S. No problem, I applied Jedi like mind tricks and waved my hand at security and was waved through the gates to see the exhibition whilst it was still being set up.

I was greeted at the door with Fluid Boundary by Yanjin Wu, a fluffy and blurry sculpture that illustrated the boundaries we have with each other.

Blurring boundaries of personal and digital space Post-Bed-Post by Felicity Morris discussed the relationship between Instagram, public broadcasting and our digital-physical identity.

An interesting title from Studio Sol, ‘Wearing Chairs While Sitting On Pants' asks us to think ‘How can our perception about clothing and furniture be transformed through challenging and comparing the disciplines to breed a new object category?’

Julie Helles Erikson deals in textile, fashion concepts and had scanned in data to her fabrics, thereby telling a story as you moved a sensor across the textiles.

There was so much to see that I got quite lost for a while before I was located and brought back into the fold of the press tour in Strijp-S.



Here, we were in a new area for the festival, the old Philips factory Director’s area, Strijp-TQ. I was here to see Elle Decoration’s, Fluid Forces exhibit, the theme of which was Concentrate - Cocreate - Celebrate. The exhibition was in a former bunker, but Evelien Reich, Editor in Chief of Elle Decoration.NL, had turned her enviable talents toward creating the most opulent ‘bunker’ ever. Pastel swirls, gold and fluffy, a scrubbed up and polished Memphis.

Next it was on to visit the former director’s canteen on the top floor of Strijp-TQ to see Filter Family by Studio Lonk in collaboration with What if Lab and Leoluk. This was an installation of movable panels that made interesting noises when you moved them. Although a corporate exhibition, the enthusiasm of Studio Lonk in explaining their process made for a worthwhile visit.



The more large-scale corporate ventures dispensed with, we went to Veem, across the way from the Ketelhuisplein. We were met by Re:flex, graduates of the Royal College of Art who had created a shape memory material that can be programmed to change its form in response to heat – very useful to help shape bike seats to the contours of your uniquely shaped backsides, for example.

The annual Dutch Design Awards were located nearby and it was good to see The Rodina being recognised for their Sonic Arts Identity  and Martina Huynh for her Basic Income Café. Across from the awards, some furniture in a space-age Memphis (Memphis on the Moon?) from Supertoys Supertoys.



 

Finally, it was great to see some really interesting textiles from graduates at Academic Design Center–Young Polish Designers: Studies in Reality, in particular Aleksandra Milewska from Strzemiński Academy of Art Lodz who asks ‘Are we really free?’ with a collection of jacquard fabrics containing reflections on the restriction of freedom in the 21st century, with heavy reference to Facebook. Also, Emilia Biernacka from the same school, dealt with memory recorded in textiles, mapping remembered places as a personal project before making cardigans from them.

Then, our last engagement of the day, we were taken to the very grand Ambassador Dinner hosted by the really lovely and down to earth Studio Drift. Their Shylights hovered over us like friendly swords of Damocles as we toasted the festival and all the hard work that goes into a festival of this scale. There were 355,000 visitors in 2018, visiting 120 venues. More venues from me soon, as I visit a house made of mushrooms and see some great dystopian fashion from The Warehouse of Innovation – New Order of Fashion.