DDW News
Once again, things have not gone as planned and turned out differently than expected, but there’s never been so much to see and do as during this tenth edition of Dutch Design Week, at the very least the fantastic exhibition by Atelier van Lieshout being held in our gallery. The exhibit does not feature furniture or applied art, but actual drawings and statues, offering some counterbalance to all the design projects. Joep will even being giving a lecture on Saturday, 22 October and will be curating the films to be shown. He’ll be doing so on the platform, where we plan to build a living room-like film theatre room especially for the occasion and where the non-stop Film and Design Festival will take place. During the daytime, the curtains will be drawn because, otherwise, we won’t be able to see anything but, during the nighttime hours, we can watch the people gazing at the film from outside or from the restaurant – theatre in itself! This was our experience during the Parade event, when the platform was transformed into a sort of viewing spectacle during the Silent Disco at night.
On Tuesday morning I’ll be giving a lecture for the NII (the Dutch Interior Institute) on “Illusions, certainties”. In fact, this is also more or less the introduction to a book I’ve written about our building. Since this book has eaten up so much of my time, I’ve had less time to write newsletters and to tweet, which I don’t really do too much anyway, but which there has been plenty of reason to do lately. All of the furniture we normally have in the event area – antique, modern and our own creations – will be placed on the platform. Sofas, chairs, tables, stools, nightstands, lamps and lots more will form an eclectic mix. The furniture had to be removed from the event area anyway since, like last year, a large number of (young) designers will be displaying their work here this year. These designers have all done an apprenticeship or worked with us at some point and we have not had any quarrels with them, this pretty much being our only selection criteria.
The selection process is always a tough one. Which client should you work with and which not? When Wehkamp approached me six months ago with a fantastically formulated question as to whether I could design a ‘basic’ collection for them and dealt with this in a professional manner in every respect, the decision was an easy one. During the DDW, we will be showing the first Wehkamp/Piet Hein Eek tables and chairs that have already been put into production.
Likewise, when Philips asked whether they could display their latest discovery in the old Philips building, I did not have to think twice. These discoveries let you create light from poop and mushroom chairs from old plastic and other practical innovations. But you don’t get something for nothing, so we asked both Philips and Wehkamp to organise a lecture instead of paying rent. We have a long list of speakers, but almost none of whom were available, mostly because we tried to organise way too much in way too little time. But there have also been a number of bright spots for design week itself and, for later in the year, commitments from our three top speakers (to be announced later). So, after a long day of mingling with people and their ideas in Eindhoven, you can find a bit of refuge, idea wise, here with us. And if you still have any energy left, you can join us for a rocking, hopping dancing party with Lady Aïda on Friday night. But no one here even knows this yet – making those newsletters all the more important, even for internal communication.
You may be asking yourself, “Apart from all that craziness and the Wehkamp designs, will we also be showing our own designs?”. We will be presenting the pieces we showed in Milan and at Miami Art Basel, not to mention totally decadent silver-plated vases and a wooden tile cabinet we were unable to finish at the time. You can also see a brand spanking new chair based on a design I made years ago for the ticket booth at the Kröller Müller museum and serving trays, new tea towels and a version of the steel sheet sideboard (plaatkast) with drawers. During DDW itself, we will be hard at work creating and the machines in the workshop will be operating at full capacity. The picture looking down at the workshop from the showroom, in which it appears as if a well-rehearsed performance is taking place but which is actually just people at work, really says it all.
Please click the following link for al the activities during DDW 2011.
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