Design Academy Eindhoven will present “Eat Shit” at the Salone del Mobile - the first exhibition of the new department Food Non Food. The entire department (18 students and their teachers) will transfer to Milan for the event, which delves into the politics of how, where and why we eat in a part exhibition, part public laboratory format.
Nothing deserves our attention more than food – it binds us, it fuels us, and the myriad of issues concerning its production, distribution and consumption touch on some of humanity’s most fundamental problems.
The event is co-curated by the new department head Marije Vogelzang along with artist and designer Jan Konings. In it we will share projects concerning contemporary food culture while exploring the necessary relationship between education and exhibition.
Food is life. Input leads to output. So it makes sense to also examine one of foods stinkiest consequences – shit and waste. Shit is your printout, the great revealer of a person’s health and culture. And to shout “Eat Shit” is to hurl a protest against contemporary realities, which leave people divided and often-times hungry.
DAE alumnus Jason Page has discovered over 400 graduation projects focusing on food or faeces from 1976 until now, which will be revealed in a timeline. Also on display will be the installation “Outdoor Pharmacy” by Marloes van Bennekom, the “Poederij” by Femke Mosch, and Arne Hendricks’ “Pigeon Poo Tower”. Next to this we will exhibit recent graduation work like “Popcorn Monsoon” by Jolene Carlier, Pim van Baaren’s “Holy Crap” (a project that rethinks waste in Kathmandu) and “In Limbo Embassy”, a chilling protest project exploring the plight of rejected asylum seekers by Manon van Hoeckel.
 |
 |
 |
| Manon van Hoeckel – In Limbo Embassy |
Sunjoo Lee – Current student work |
Pim van Baarsen – Holy Crap |
Especially for “Eat Shit”, food curator Lucas Mullié will present “Infinite Sausage”, a food-producing machine that will provide a dinner menu that can be enjoyed with a beverage in the courtyard space of the exhibition.
Three DAE Breakfast Talks on the 15th, 16th and 17th April will give the public the chance to meet with Food Non Food tutors and students who will talk together with internationally acclaimed artists, theoreticians and designers such as Francesca Piredda from DESIS Lab, industrial ecologist Barbara Putman Cramer, Francesca Miazzo from CITIES Foundation, and Daisy Ginsberg. The breakfasts are held in collaboration with the Creative Industries Fund NL.