Basse Stittgen

Prizes: Gijs Bakker Award Nominee

Department: Social Design
Website: www.bassestittgen.com

Blood Related

As a simultaneous embodiment of life and death, blood is nature’s ultimate contradiction. It tells a thousand stories, steeped in meaning and mysticism. Yet, the very real modern narrative of blood as a mass waste material remains untold. Every year, millions of litres of animal blood are wasted by the meat industry – one of the biggest in the world. The slaughterhouses have little use for it. What if this raw refuse could become a biomaterial instead? This is what Basse Stittgen explores in ‘Blood Related’.
The blood is dried and heat-pressed into a series of objects including an egg cup, jewellery chest, and a record that sounds out the animal’s heartbeat when played. Together they present the material possibilities of blood, while also playing with its strong symbolic meaning versus its physicality. Can this biomaterial ever become ‘just an object’, without any further associations?