By Gabrielle Kennedy
The seventh incarnation of the academy’s travelling exhibition Self/Unself opened last Saturday 13th September in Suzhou, China.
The show’s heart captures the revolution that Dutch design has undergone since the 90s. Back then we witnessed a celebration amongst designers of the “self”. The designer as author produced a lot of iconic, limited-edition work. Much of it was magnificent – clever and conceptual and often with a comical connection to the zeitgeist.
But when the economy crashed our discipline’s relationship with society had to change. People’s needs, man’s motivations, and humanity’s guilt needed attention. Curator Thomas Widdershoven has captured this change and titled it the “un-self”. With co-curator and exhibition designer Jan Konings they present design that reveals a commitment to achieving what might be termed the greater good.
Formafantasma’s “Moulding Tradition” for example is a series of traditional Sicilian vases wrapped with portraits of Africans – illegal immigrants who are now considered a threat, but who once ruled the island. The work highlights the contradictions between traditional culture and contemporary politics. 65% of Italians feel that African immigration threatens their culture.
What’s most interesting in this time of flux is how designers are positioning themselves along this axis of self-unself. It is also relevant to compare contemporary design to the work of previous generations because together they reveal much about this on-going narrative. Design, designers and their relationship to the world around them.
In “Rotating House” John Körmeling (’51) introduces the idea of alienation. On a controversial roundabout near the city of Tilburg, Kormeling constructed a full-scale model house that circles the roundabout once every twenty hours. Normally cars travel and houses stay still – a moving house unnerves and works as a harsh (and hilarious) reminder that cars and the infrastructure that accommodate them are the real determinants of a town’s design.
2013 DAE graduate Dave Hakkens’ “phone blocks” bravely and unselfishly dares to challenge the power of phone companies. His phone consists of separate components that can be clicked together so when one part breaks only that part needs to be replaced. The approach completely changes how phone companies think.
Via Thunderclap, an online platform that works similarly to crowd-funding, Dave tapped into his one million direct supporters to reach 350 million people. This wave of grass-roots support ultimately made it impossible for Motorola to ignore him and now they are talking.
The academy has always operated as a two-way street between students and their teachers who are all active designers. No teacher could have equipped Dave with the skills to utilize the Internet in such a way. It is a great example of how learning in the DAE environment is open and intergenerational.
Which also parallels the Netherlands’ creative relationship with China. Dead are the days when Europe looked to China as a world factory. Rather, we look there with admiration, and for ideas and inspiration. Ours is a mutually beneficial friendship.
The Self/Unself exhibition is a great cultural exchange and a step towards more cooperation in designing a better and fairer world.
Self/Unself
Suzhou Jinji Lake Art Museum
runs until December 12th 2014
then at Macau Design Center
January 14th 2015 to March 15th 2015
Exhibition Director
Zhu Qiang, Thomas Widdershoven
Curator
Feng Boyi, Liu Gang, James Chu (CN)
Thomas Widdershoven (NL)
Exhibition Design
Jan Konings