Holon Design Museum designed by the most famous Israeli designer Ron Arad. The building is made up of red, brown, and orange bands of steel. Somehow I expected the museum not to be so close to an urban planning area. It is also much smaller when I remember from the images I used to see before. Funny how your mind tricks you and how reality becomes a habit. Because once you see it and you walk through it makes sense. However last year, after encountering many inspiring Israeli designers, I decided to go to Tel Aviv and to get an insight into their culture. As it happens the show ‘Common Roots – Design Map of Central Europe’ opened in the same week. That’s why I ended up at the opening in Holon.

Now, four months later, I am actually late with the images of the opening, because the exhibition closed down yesterday. However it doesn’t stop me from sharing it with you. Let’s call this a retrospective of the occasion.

Eyal de Leeuw, Head of External Relations at the Design Museum Holon who btw also runs a fashion style blog called The Garçonnière.

The entry area of ‘Common Roots – Design Map of Central Europe’ curated by Polish journalist and head of domestic design at School of Form, Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka.

Exhibition view ‘Common Roots’ – a fair like setting with huge banners and confusing numbers that were all over the place. It wasn’t just the hebrew writing that was the reason for my confusion. It was the lack of descriptions for the displayed work. There was a folder that you got for free but unfortunately that didn’t contain any text about the actual pieces in the show either. For me text is as important as the visual impression of an exhibition.

These put a smile on my face. A set of sand toys in the shape of a tit by Polish designers Babaakcja. It means ‘woman action’ or ‘female action’. Their website states that they are currently working on individual projects. No more action then.

After being disappointed that there was no attempt to present the common historical and cultural experiences in the exhibition set-up, because all countries were separated in their own groups with no visual link, I was amazed by the quality of the exhibition catalogue! It consists of three booklets containing: a preface with text by the head curator Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka and her assistant Klara Czerniewska, various texts about ‘mapping the narrative of Romainan Design’ and ‘From Applied Arts to Industrial Design’ in Polish desigh by Anna Frackiewicz in the booklet about the past and numerous writings about Estonian, Czech and Hungarian design in the third booklet called ‘present’. On top of that it is beautifully designed by a girl that I met while I was giving a lecture in the industrial design department at The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and her friend Guy Saggee. A lucky coincidence. Maayan Levitzky, you are one to watch!

Czech product designer Martin Žampach, our journalist and friend Adam Štěch and Klara Czerniewska, three of the co-curators (I believe there were 10 in total) that helped to make the selection of the designs. Technically Czech designer Klara Sumova is also portrayed on the image. Her ‘lamp love’ stands between Adam and Klara.

A highlight of the opening was the downstairs presentation of Eastern European post war design from 1949 – 1989. The section about the past brought together a common legacy of Eastern European countries based on everyday products like the Rubik cube or the the clock barometer by Estonian designer Helle Gans.

Apparently there is only 1 correct answer and 43 quintillion wrong ones for Rubik’s cube. Invented 1974 by Hungarian inventor and architect Ernő Rubik. I think everyone of us had one in his life at some point, right?

The M58 armchair, designed by Roman Modzelewski in 1959-196o. Since last year it can be purchased via the Polish company Vzor, who took it in production. Read about Modzelewski’s wife who I met in 2011 in Lodz here.

Architect Daniel Zarhy with his journalist wife Netta Ahituv. They took us to Daniel’s grandad’s house, where we met him and his artist wife Vera. Soon I will post some images of the stunning Bauhaus house. This encounter deserves a full set of images.

Tal Erez and Maya Ben David in the middle of the picture. I think I asked them to show me some emotions. This is what they gave me. At the end they made me laugh. That’s why the picture is out of focus.

Tom Vac Chair by Ron Arad – he designed the building and brought in the furniture too. Smart.

Monica and Jill from NY-based design & arts blog Sightunseen have asked me weeks ago if I want to report the happenings around London Design Festival. I knew, I will be coming, but I told them I will be there just for one day. However, I managed to see plenty of things even if I know that I still missed a lot. Here is a resumé of my Saturday marathon, where designer Josh Bitelli joined me on route. Here is the original post ‘What We Saw’ at London Design Festival 2013 for Sightunseen.

Philippe Malouin made an analogue 3-D printer to create molds from piles of sugar for his range of plates for Staffordshire ceramics company 1882 Ltd. This is an installation at Paper Tiger in at Brompton Design District, South London, that presents the process behind the plates and bowls. ‘Dunes’ underlines the production and not just the outcome.

For the exhibition ‘Blanks in Between,’ initiated by the Workshop for Potential Design, Gemma Holt made Blanks of Blanks, papwerweights from paper that refer to the sheets in a book: usually white, sometimes painted gold.

Study O Portable reflects on the earliest distinction between a rock and a hammer. They combined various materials into three new perceptions of hammers: white Carrara marble with a chiseled steel handle, type metal with a Maplewood handle, and blue casting wax with a cast-bronze handle.

Eva Feldkamp and Laetitia Di Allegri recently started to collaborate. They met, they talked, and now they work together because they have a similar mindset. During LDF they presented ‘Issue no. 1,’ a selection of various projects from the past, like the porcelain Caraffe by Eva and the marble sculpture with an unexpected extra function by Laetitia that was made for Depot Basel’s ‘No Function No Sense’ exhibition in 2012. There were also three projects that are a result of their having joined forces: a folded stool, door handles, and a tray.

Collate by Sixthirty is a touchscreen installation at the V&A that invites visitors to participate in making a publication that’s being printed after LDF. An interactive opportunity to get a feeling for self-publishing: Who said print is dead?”

It felt like a film set when I bumped into the Disaster Playground by Nelly Ben Hayoun at the V&A, a live brainstorming session at a round table with world-leading scientists in the field of potentially hazardous Near-Earth Objects and disaster mitigation. Cameras all around, nine people at the table that could have been actors, and people gathering. All this in the section of August Rodin, if I’m not mistaken.

Irini Papadimitriou (left), the V&A curator responsible for of the Digital Design segment of LDF, together with the designer and inventor of the Disaster Playground, Nelly Ben Hayoun. Earlier this year at the Serptentine Gallery, Hans-Ulrich Obrist said to Nelly of her work, ‘This is most urgent’!

Music, sounds, and people — all three stand for Yuri Susuki’s work. The Tokyo-born artist regularly puts all three in relationship to eachother. Garden of Russolo is an installation at the John Madejski garden at the V&A that’s an homage to Futurist composer Luigi Russolo. Yuri created a signature amplifier with electronics embedded within to transform ambient sound and the human voice into white noise

Thomas Thwaites’s 2009 Toaster Project was purchased by the Design Fund of the V&A! Thomas rebuilt a toaster from scratch during a 9-month period by extracting and processing the raw materials for the construction himself, only to find out that it would cost £1187.54 if sold. Mass-manufacturing beat him with a £3.49 version from Argos. Isn’t it absurd?

At the V&A, employees sit on Konstantin Gricic’s Miura barstool for Plank. Henry Cole, the V&A’s first director, declared that the Museum should be a ‘schoolroom for everyone’ — I wonder if he would expect everyone to sit on plastic chairs?

At Brompton Pitch, an open-air market exhibiton space by curator Jane Withers and Disgeno editor Johanna Agerman, Czech creative collective Okolo presented a summary of their work: events, exhibitions, commissioned work, publishing, editorials. The trio also brought ‘Radical Sitting: Hidden Experiments in Seating Furniture 1900-1990,’ a publication made for Depot Basel’s Seating exhibition from 2012

If I think of patterns and colors, I think of Lola Lely’s potluck stools that are made from solid wood. We had one on show, together with her lamps and candlestick holders, during Craft & Drawing at Depot Basel this year, and these four were standing at Mint Gallery during LDF. Lola says about the stools: ‘I want them all to be different. It’s a really simple shape in different colors and surface combinations.

Marina Stanimirovic’s necklaces, also on view at Mint Gallery, caught my attention earlier this year, when Current Obsession magazine and I selected 10 jewelery designers for an editorial in their next issue. I’ll use a quote here that we will use also in the magazine: ‘Because even if you can’t wear it to go to work or go buy some food, the fact that it has been designed for the body makes the piece the most intimate sculpture or design object.

I think it’s a cliché that rains a lot in London. We had an incredible summer, and as I live life between Holland, England, and Switzerland, I had the feeling that Holland was the rainiest this year. However, London has this very unique umbrella store, right in the center of the city, called James Smith & Son, which exists since 1830. For those who don’t need an umbrella, it’s also the place to get a walking stick!

At Libby Sellers Gallery, I attended a Norwegian happening around food that was also a gathering of people who work with Libby. The central element was the newly launched Copper Mirror Series by Hunting & Narud, the first official product from a partnership between Oscar Narud and Amy Hunting. We’ve seen plenty of copper in the last seasons, but this brings it to another scale.

Knäckebröd and salmon sandwiches at Libby Sellers Saturday in the gallery for family and friends

Liliana Ovalle’s Sinkhole vases were part of the ‘Grandmateria III’ show at Libby Sellers. The vessels are inspired by the geological phenomena of sinkholes. Earlier this year, Liliana showed me her sketchbooks, undecided on which of her ideas should became part of the Craft & Drawing show at Depot Basel. I thought the story of the voids that emerge abruptly from the ground and can swallow a truck from the street, or an entire house, was the most intriguing one — which Libby’s fine taste agreed with.

Liliana Ovalle with Kytzia Barrera from Colectivo 1050º — who helped her produce the clay pieces in Mexico — leaving Libby Sellers in Central London. Their next stop was the Apple store, and than Liliana went to Okay Studio’s ‘Loose Thread’ exhibition at Spitalfield Market.

I’m always offended when they say that I play when I do Memphis work; actually I’m very serious, I’m never more serious than when I do Memphis work. It’s when I design machines for Olivetti that I play.’ —Ettore Sottsass. I think the concept store Darkroom wanted both this year, with their ‘So Sottsass’ exhibition —to play around and to do business.

Darkroom invited Studiopepe to make their window display and commissioned new versions of their Kora vases for the store. The vase is a good reference to Memphis, but as it’s unglazed, it’s just an object, because you can’t actually pour water in it.

Meret Probst, Lola Lely, and Josh Bitelli, three of the participants of the new Works collective of RCA grads, who presented ‘Made by Works’ during LDF, a temporary shop and exhibition space. After their crowded show in Milan this year, they wanted to do a rather intimate presentation that they were able to control themselves

Textile-molded glass lamps by Silo Studio at Made by Works, another project that focuses on self-production. Later that day I bumped into one half of Silo Studio, Oscar Wanless, at Tent. He actually has blue hair right now. Last time there was some purple involved. You’ll see it for yourself later in this story.

Meet the Flamingo Project: These simple-looking candleholders explore salt as a solid material for designing. Jungin Lee aims to apply it to furniture, pushing the potential of salt as a natural and abundant material found in our landscape, but I found the small experiments in this picture more convincing. Each piece can be dissolved in water at the end of its lifespan, bringing into debate the lifespan and landfill dilemmas of current product cycles.

Josh Bitelli is an on-site researcher and experimental designer with the most amazing ability to put things in the most descriptive words (I guess that’s why he recently gave a talk at the 89plus panel with Simon Castets and Kevin McGarry). His project Welded Drawings includes this candelholder and many more, which were made for Craft & Drawing at Depot Basel. During LDF the project was part of Made by Works.

Josh Bitelli joined me on my walk from Clarkenwell to Shoreditch. On the way, we found this fantastic façade. ‘Time and diesel in a big city. It’s a gritty city,’ Josh said. We both enjoy the evolution of things. We are solely responsible.

At KK Store on Hoxton Square, culture and food magazine The Gourmand invited photographers to take pictures of the views from kitchen windows. This one was taken by Gustav Almestal. The shadow of the blinds suggest that there’s a window.

Recent RCA graduate Tom Gottelier put a show together with the title ‘Going into buisness,’ about self-prduction and entrepreneurial ambition. Check out the guy in the back who’s photobombing. And most importantly, check out Thomas’s website for the projects.

As I said before, Oscar Wanless of Silo Studio is all blue at the moment. I couldn’t resist photographing him together with Lex Pott and Rutger De Regt in front of the Tent entrance, color matching.

The front of Designmarketo’s ‘Perfume Sir’ show on Redchurch Street in East London. Over the course of LDF’s 10 days you were invited on a journey through the wonders of pepper, by way of commissioned objects, workshops, dinners, perfumes, and flavors. It featured works and workshops by food scientists Arabeschi Di Latte, oxidizing professional Lex Pott, Peter Marigold, and Odd Matter, among others.

I concluded my marathon romp through LDF with fantastic Jacopo Sarzi’s ice-sculpting and cocktail-making workshop. One of the stands was reserved for lollipop making on an block of ice. Basil, peppermint, and ginger went into a little dent, a wooden stick got poked into it, and Jacopo’s assistant poured a melted sugar paste on top. After a while it all stuck together and you were ready to lick it and to stir it in your drink. I was eating lollipops all evening because alcohol would have made me too tired with my jetlag.

I photoshopped Felix into the Salk Institute, San Diego by Louis Kahn – the picture is by daisy77 dp challange and I stole it from the mighty Internet.

This is such a puzzle that I put together over years. The story starts in Spring 2010. I was sitting at Martino Gamper‘s kitchen table when Caroline Roux came for lunch to interview him for PIN-UP. I instantly liked the magazine. If Gio only knew… By the time Felix Burrichter commissioned Nightstands together with Philips de Pury and I sold my soul to PIN-UP and to Felix Burrichter. It’s like seeing someone and finding out what you want to do yourself. Flamboyant restraint is how he describes himself, referring to the fourth Issue of PIN-UP, which came out in May 2008, and which featured an essay about flamboyance and restraint in the life and work of Le Corbusier.

When talking on Skype he uses a telephone receiver. It is yellow. I never expected to meet someone who actually uses ones or buys one of these. In Spring 2012 (Spring seems to be our time, Felix) he did the Drawn Interview and I became a contributor. The interview with Clemence Seilles for the Berlin Issue is now available in the first PIN-UP book. Since when we had random, planned and unplanned encounters. Earlier this year, during ICFF, Spring of course, I crashed nice Italian pleather couch. Since I know how much affection he has towards Michael Grave’s MG 1000 phone I understand why he prefers to talk in an old manner. Meet Felix and some of the stuff around him.

Felix at his temporary office in Berlin for the Spring Summer issue no. 12 , 2012
- while drawing the Drawn Interview

3 x PIN-UP

Felix!! at Various Project’s Here & There show in Manhattan, ICFF 2013

Telephone by American architect and designer Michael Graves

Crowd at the Kayne West concert at Design Miami Basel earlier this year. Felix is on the phone and in the right corner you can spot Bethan Laura Wood with her multicoloured dresscode

Jesper Just, Romantic Delusions, 2010 – an actual image of Udo Kier with tits in Felix’s bathroom

Photographer Marcelo Krasilcic

Felix together with Michael from PIN-UP

NY based artist Paul Kopkau

A fat plant at Felix’s New York apartment – the only one that can survive his travel lifestyle

Felix and Alex Mustonen from Snarkitecture in Milan 2013

Felix with Horacia Silva at Design Miami Basel 2013

DRAW YOURSELF

DESCRINE YOURSELF IN ONE WORD

DRAW YOUR FAVOURITE OBJECT

Sarah Mesritz and Marina Elenskaya like jewelry. They both believe that ‘Jewelry is what you make of it’. Sarah studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Maastricht and Marina graduated at the Rietveld Academy. I recently found out that Marina got an BA in television and radio direction in Russia before turning to jewelry and moving to Amsterdam. At some stage the urge to be an editor appeared. She seems to be skilled for the job. Young (I’m so young I am ‘s so goddam young as Patti Smith states in the editors note of Issue 2) and eager. That’s actually what both of them are. And with that attitude they founded Current Obsession, Contemporary Jewelry Magazine, where they show that jewelry has a strong relation to different fields of art. And than they asked me to be a contributor. After several encounters, Skype meetings and conversations we developed ‘The Exhibition That Never happened’, an editorial that plays with the features of an exhibition on a 2d surface. It’s a representation of 10 jewelry designers that you can hold in your hand, which is out now and can be order here.

Sarah and Marina draw the Drawn Interview at Hotel Droog in Amsterdam. The 1st Issue, themed Archetype, that they launched in March 2013 in Munich lies on the table. The girls are planning to release the 3rd issue in Spring 2014.

Y E A H

This is taken in front of my Bureau door in Maastricht. Annelisse Pfeifer stayed with Marina for a few months as an intern in Antwerp. Sarah’s new intern Julia Fischer works with her in Eindhoven. All these girls have curly heads. It seems like working at Current Obsession is a hair thing or is it another fascination?

It is the last picture after a meeting we had in Rotterdam in early July. My battery died after I took it, which was anyways a miracle because it wouldn’t switch on before at all. Let’s call it random lucky shot.

Marina came last week to the press preview of The Wilde Things: the so called contemporary jewllery collection of Mrs. Wilde at Z33. You can find an interview with curator Evelien Bracke on the Current Obsession website.

Sarah carefully applies the name stickers of the 10 designers that are part of The Exhibition That Never Happened’. Christoph Sagel and I, SAGEL AND KRZYKOWSKI, we executed the concept of the black room. We painted one of the rooms in my house black, made a darkroom with extreme light, allowing each colourful piece to shine. It is a presentation of formality that makes each piece an desirable piece of jewelry.

Here it is, a black and shinny Issue no. 2, carefully designed by graphic designers Anne Hennerdal and Linda Beumer.

SARAH MESRITZ
I DRAW YOURSELF

II DESCRIBE YOURSELF

III DRAW YOUR FAVOURITE OBJECT

MARINA ELENSKAYA
I DRAW YOURSELF

II DESCRIBE YOURSELF

III DRAW YOUR FAVOURITE OBJECT

Splendour lender by Jelle Mastenbroek at the Design Academy Eindhoven Graduation Show

Last night in a bar in Whitechapel, London – it was busy and a Japanese friend of mine who lives in England since 15 years said “What a turn out”, an expression that defines that it is very busy because many people came. It made me think of the Dutch Design Week that ends today. I joined the press tour on the first Saturday last week. We started off at the Design Academy, visited the VanAbbemuseum, Designhuis, Kazerne – I shoot out to Sectie C in between and had dinner with the Dutch Invertuals. I take my judgment from what I saw that day and from what I have heard since than. It was the 12th edition of the design event in Eindhoven. They simply don’t give up on the dream of being THE design city. Today is the last day and this edition seem to be a presentation of everything design in all categories in your every day life for everyone: visually stunning, critical and social, for children and for grown-ups. Design is accessible in Eindhoven. It’s everyday and belongs to you and not just to a world of designers. The Volkskrant said yesterday ‘De crisis laat zich niet zien in de Dutch Design Week’. Where is this crisis everyone is talking about? Because it seems that everyone is interested in Design and everyone can afford it. Sometimes it’s the experience that counts. Buyers, gallery owners and the public were walking around, talking to the creators, buying directly. During a single day I witnessed that everyone is part of design.

Money Back Guarantee No.1 from Jelle Mastenbroek on Vimeo.

Splendour Lender from Jelle Mastenbroek on Vimeo.

Does experience have to cost? Does a smile has a value? Jelle Mastenbroek provides experiences with duty free happiness, as he states on his website. The Moneyback Back and Spllendour Lender projects show that design can releases that smile in your face that doesn’t have cost you anything. In fact it simply costs you the effort of wanting an experiences that releases a positive feeling in you and a 1 Euro coin (I am sure other currencies are accepted)

Designing the news by Monica Alisse . The American designer who graduated in the Masters program of Information Design at the Design Academy “how online publishing and a growing reader¹s participation influence our perception of news” on the example of the flow of publications that followed the attack on a young Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, in October 2012.

Jinhee Kwon

Jinhee Kwon‘s ‘The Mutt’ is a personal story. Korean Jinhee tells about her international culture of mixed identities, of a girl who got told to have a normal personality and not to stand out. She came to Holland and her expectations of coming a Western culture and working design in front of computer were wrong. She ended up making projects that are manually executed and realised that she is now there, to entertain us.

Physicalizing human relations and a horse by Danish by Ann Linn Palm Hansen . I haven’t seen the horse, but I am intruigued by her fine and simple black and white drawings.

Again, Ann Linn Palm Hansen

Symbiosis of stoneware by Dienke Dekker and Daniel Costa
A collaboration between the two graduates and between stoneware and porcelain, an experiment that defines the shape of the vessels while burned in the oven

Another project by Daniel Costa where he has made aesthetic choices and combined them with

Mark Berkers experienced the loss of a close family member. His family’s vulnerable state made a mortician use their feelings which left the Berkers with a huge bill for the ceremony – a fortune for one of the few things in life that are certain. I wish Mark would not have made the decision to link his idea to Easyjet. I believe in his concept is strong, but makes the idea almost ironic. An own branding would have eventually real potential for the market.

Current director of the Design Academy, Thomas Widdershoven, giving a tour through the ‘Self Unself’ exhibition at VanAbbemuseum, where the theme of the Design Academy continues. The selection of work of Alumnis is presented until end of November. I wonder for how long he will stay the director.

The Knitting Collection of Loes Veenstra by Christien Meindertsma. The sweaters have never been worn. On October 31st, ROOMSERVICE cafe and tearoom at Hôtel Droog will auction a number of unique sweaters over a dinner event.

This is a highlight to me. Erik Kessel‘s selected and collected and brought this series if images into a book. Ria van Dijk has taken 1 picture of herself in a fairground shooting gallery since she is 16. Every time she hits the target, it triggers the shutter of a camera and a portrait of the girl in firing pose is taken.

Timber by Vincent Tarisien is a DIY table range that comes in a cardboard tube.

TIMBER/ vincent Tarisien from VincentTarisien on Vimeo.

Inside Out by Alicia Ongay Perez. The designer made a video where she demonstrates about a potential context for her work, definied by the people around her in London. She asked them to ‘read’ an porcelain object that she had designed. “Do you think it’s a good cup?”, Alicia asks. The answer she receives is:”It’s not the sort if thing I would like to drink of”.

Inside Out by Alicia Ongay Perez from Design Academy Eindhoven on Vimeo.

Next we went to Desinghuis for a tour around ‘De gezonde mens’, an exhibition presented in collaboration with The New Institute that shows how designers contribute to exploring health care possibilities.

Curator Sabine Wildevuur

Quote from Walter Gropius

Jalila Essaidi investigating the possibility to grow bulletproof skin.

Jalila Essaïdi – Bulletproof Skin, Exploring Boundaries by Piercing Barriers 2.6g 329m/s from CIANT Prague on Vimeo.

A good portion of humour makes your day, no? Unfortunately I don’t remember the designers name, so please if anyone knows it, let me know. I found it at Sectie C

Sectie C is an old industrial area where designers from any kinds have their studios and work areas. Luuk van den Broek is one of the designers from Collaboration O. This is his ‘Stone composition’.

Dashilar Flagship store by Sander Wassink for Salon/ in Bejing. In his project he combines ols, unuseed shoes into new ones in order to create an local identity brand.

Designer Niek van der Heijden is one of the residence in the huge area. He moved there almost three years ago.

Pressed by Floris Wubben is a machine that presses epoxy clay into vessels.

Leaving a very improvised Sectie C and arriving for dinner at Eat Drink Design, where the walls were painted black and the interior matched the concept is quite contrast. In between the aim for perfection was an exhibition of new projects by Dutch designers. This one is by Eva van der Moer

These Steel vessels are by Max Lipsey .

Food and a bonfire also always bring people together. I finished the day off with two dinners and plenty of visual sensations. I will post about the evening at Dutch Invertuals soon. Again, I wish to have more time next year.

Pick-Up made from aluminium, polyamide, wool, steel by Silke Fleischer and a see-through plastic Hema hair clip owned by me `

Mrs.Wilde is a graceful old lady that went through many stages in her life and through a fair amount of lovers, who partly understood what kind of woman she was and is. But Harry is the one who makes Mrs. Wilde indulge in reminiscences. He is the person she dedicates her thoughts to. She reflects on each relevant moment of her life based on one of the jewellery pieces she has collected through years. Some of them were a generous gift from Harry. This is the scenario you enter in the exhibition ‘The Wilde Things – the so contemporary jewellery collection of Mrs. Wilde’. The long grey hair and the delicately chiselled features of her face and the sadness and melancholy in her eyes made me wonder what kind of woman I will be in her age. Maybe Mrs. Wilde is a bit too sad. However the story that is told, written by Oscar van den Boogaard, shows each piece in an exceptional context. It’s a story of the wearer not the jewelery itself. The exhibition is compiled by in-house Z33 curator Evelien Bracke, who introduced me to a new world of adornment while working with her. I blame her for my evoked interest. Thank you Evelien! The show runs until 19th January 2014.

Exhibition view

Jewellery as an investigation – Suska Mackert’s ‘The Andy Warhol Collection’ is an auction catalogue of Andy Warhol’s jewelery collection where all actual jewelery pieces were cut-out. The remaining pages are a fragile construction, an idea of a collection that must have existed. In Evelien’s notes, which she has kindly shared with me, she states that Suska Mackert has only rarely made “real”, wearable pieces of jewelery since 2007.

Dutch artist and film maker Manon de Boer, who is responsible for the film that accompanies the concept of ‘The Wilde Things – the so contemporary jewelery collection of Mrs. Wilde’

Necklace – Crude oil and its products by Katrin Spranger

Pain by Jorge Manilla

Colona by Studio Formafantasma

Mrs. Wilde with the necklace from Silke Fleischer, Evelien Bracke concentrated in her notes and Manon de Boer during the 2 day videoshoot at Soki in Gent, Belgium

Belgian writer Oscar van den Boogaard

Neckpiece by Iris Bodemer

Apertura 1 by Gemma Draper

Thinking of you by Benjamin Lignel

Evelien Bracke started the exhibition set-up by placing Katrin Spranger’s necklace first. It’s one of the biggest pieces in the show. The scenography is based on various layers of glass that refer to the setting of the film.

Manon van Kouswijk, Irma Földényi, Boris de Beijer , Lisa Walker, Hannah Joris – more jewelery pieces from the collection of Mrs. Wilde

Curator Evelien Bracke

When Current Obsession asked me to curate The Exhibition That Never Happened together with them, I suggested that I want to do a profile on each of the participants. I was interested in where the jewellery designers come from, where they got their attitude from and what defines them. I think it’s necessary to give an overview about the choices we made. You can find the profiles of all 10 designers also in the current, 2nd issue themed ‘The Youth’ on the last page of the curated editorial. Back than, in August this year, when Sarah Mesritz and Marina Elenskaya left me and my partner in crime Christoph Sagel of Sagel and Krzykowski to photograph the pieces, all jewellery stayed with me for couple of days. During that time I had the chance to look at all work again and I got carried away and took photographs of it all with my own humble camera. Time to share both, text accompanied with images, with you here.

Marina Stanimirovic (top image) – Juxtaposition Of Sculpture Or Design Object
JEWELLERY DESIGNER
Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork & Jewellery department at Royal College of Art, UK, 2013
“Because even if you can’t wear it to go to work or go buy some food, the fact that it has been designed for the body, makes the piece the most intimate sculpture or design object.” Marina used Corian®, resin mixed with powder of stone, because when you touch it, it is a really cold and heavy material, but also really soft to carve: two antithetic notions.

Nelly Zagury – 2D To 3D Fantasy
HANDS-ON ART DIRECTOR
Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs of Strasbourg, FR, 2011
Nelly creates a mythological world, where jewellery is a relic of her fantasy, a hybrid object, which looks like a whip or a penis. She creates ornamental objects playing with symbolism of adornment.

Ejing Zhang – Tradition Encounters Interaction
TEXTILE DESIGNER
MA Royal College of Art, UK, 2013
Ejing made an abacus out of essential materials and tools – bobbins and paintbrushes.
Abacus was the calculating method taught everywhere in China when she was little. The thread winding, the plastic, and the wood all came from that abacus. She is interested in jewellery as something interacting with the body and not having limitations of being soft fabric.

Patricia Domingues – Reconstructed Material
JEWELLERY DESIGNER
MA Hochschule Trier, Fachrichtung Edelstein und Schmuck, Idar-Oberstein, DE, 2013
Reconstructed material is a massive block, without anything, any line, any detail, and any imperfection. It does not matter the angle you cut, it will always be the same. Whatever you make will only add something to this naked block.

He Jing – Readymade Liaison
JEWELLERY DESIGNER
Jewellery department at Gerrit Rietveld Academie, NL, 2013
Jing appreciates normal-looking, mass-produced things, because they are simple, durable, and functional. They are full of hints in details. She imagines the reasons why people made them and how people treat them. When she makes the work with ready-mades, she is ‘collaborating’ with them.

Wei Mao – Right Material
JEWELLERY DESIGNER
BA fashion Jewellery at London College of Fashion, UK, 2013
The work is based on dessert-making and cream-piping. Wei researched the material that is soft and fluid enough to go through a piping nozzle, while not being too soft or too fluid to keep the shape. She tried plaster, jesmonite, resin, silicone and etc., eventually found polymer clay material. It is also pure white, which makes it easy to get any colour palette.

Maiko Gubler - Experiments Within Hybrid Spaces
ART DIRECTOR/IMAGE-MAKER
Visual Communication at The Berlin University of the Arts, DE, 2000
Maiko is interested in printing technology and 3D modelling. She experiments within hybrid spaces and explores the intrinsic qualities of three-dimensional computer-aided imagery and objects. ”The intersection where things are lacking definition and have a sense of unease is what I’m interested in. I’d like to invite people to think about the obsolete real/digital distinctions differently and to expand their notion of spatiality and things.”

Boris de Beijer – Artefacts From The Far Future (left)
DESIGNER & DJ
Jewellery department at Gerrit Rietveld Academie, NL, 2011
Boris deals with historic context of jewellery, rather than it’s contemporary relevance. “Jewellery pieces are not even meant to be worn by humans”. Invents his own material by combining and excessively experimenting with existing raw materials and found objects – mixture of different resins at the base for each piece. Due to its unpredictable and aggressive behaviour, the outcome of the raw bloc is always a surprise, always unique and therefore it is impossible to duplicate a piece. “It’s a lot like alchemy.”

Florian Milker – Digital Precision (right)
GOLDSMITH, JEWELLERY DESIGNER
Kunsthochschule Burg Giebichenstein, Halle Saale, DE, 2015
Florian did an apprenticeship as a Goldsmith – a classic playground with its limitations. Soon he turned to 3D programs. The B_Serie is made by laser sinter process. “I like the gentle surface, the low weight possibility and the precision of the technique.” Florian will graduate in 2015.

Shana Teugels – Shaped Kitsch
JEWELLERY DESIGNER
St. Lucas University College of Art & Design, BE, 2010
Shana uses polypropylene, resin, plastic beads, and glitter glue – a combination of cheap materials that came from an intense research on kitsch and resulted in experiments of endless shaping options.

The project for The Great Indoors Education Program took 6 weeks. Each week on Tuesday my assistant Raya Stefanova and I as their mentor met with 4 Belgian and 4 Brazilian Interior Design students from the University Hasselt. Find extracts of the project on our Kiki’s Crisis Store Tumblr. On the first day we got to know each other and also met our client: Kiki Niesten, a self-made woman that runs two high-end fashion stores on Stokstraat, the most expensive street in Maastricht.

Kiki came to us and requested a crisis store. She already owns two stores, so she asked for something where no clothes are sold. The students asked her many questions about the choices she made for her store, what her retail strategy is and why she decided to open a 2nd store on the other side of the street. Eventually I remembered that I read an interview a while ago where she said that she always wanted to have a store on Stookstraat. Back than she was debating if it should be a cheese store or a fashion store. It certainly made all of us grin, because we thought it’s so far off. But Kiki explained that it technically is the same intention – it’s just a different product. She simply knew she wants to run her own business.

The team

It’s a challenge to sum up all thoughts and references we collected in the past 3 weeks. Discussions are a process that can’t be put in written words. However, the aspect that came up all the time is that people seek for comfort in crisis. How many of us have heard from our friends that they don’t have any money or don’t want to spend any? We instantly think that experiences have to cost something. But in fact simple things like a smile, a gesture, a warm space with a comfy couch and atmospheric lighting, a route that tells a story of past present and future, that maybe takes the crisis of you for a moment or the day is what everyone of us need from time to time. That’s why we decided that we want to offer something that the public can appreciate. We imagined that they come in and leave happier. At the end a shop is something for the public. It’s just that some concepts don’t invite you in.

So there was a request for a crisis shop and am additional theme that The Great Indoors issued. “The Nature of Things” made us think about retail systems that look like a design idea that was forced into a space no matter what the existing infrastructure already tells by itself. From the beginning Kiki’s Crisis Shop was aiming to enhance the existing structures of the 19 century location. For us it already radiated pride and confidence, like a civic monument. We immersed ourselves into the architecture and the colour theme, while thinking of the crisis, Kiki and her stores.

I would love to tell you that you have to go and see the experience shop yourself, but unfortunately it was made to exist just for 2 days: one day for the jury and the 2nd one for the public. Now I will guide you though the concept. I promised the students to make it exist longer.

In the entry Raya Stefanova and Annelies Putseys gave the visitors a bag with a floormap and a bar of soap – an object that refers to the ritual of purification and aims to remind the visitors of taking a min for themselves. The tiny red carpet is inviting the people from outside to the inside, but its size is reduced due to the crisis. We were playing with ironic, humorous elements here as well.

That’s the front of the floormap. It was important to the students that people feel welcome.

“At Kiki’s Crisis shop we offer experiences”. The back side explains all stations of the route. We made illustrations for all stations.

At the end of the red carpet Jolein Versmissen explained the choices you had to make: first to the Future Fashion Lab that drew a vision of the future of the fashion industry – a possible future of Kiki Niesten’s retail concept. Or to the changing room that let you walk through past and present while comforting you. Here we wanted to give more attention to the actual ‘changing room’ that is sometimes a forgotten aspect of a shop. You didn’t get the chance to change clothes on ours, but maybe change the state of your mind.

That’s how our retail experience started.

No cash desk because you won’t spend any money.

Production on request what happens at the Future Fashion Lab. “The 20th Century was about dozens of markets of millions of consumers. The 21st Century is about millions of markets of dozens of consumers” Joe Kraus, dotcom pioneer. Because consumers know what they want.

Once you entered the ‘changing room’ you had to wash your hands first. ‘Start with a clean slate’.

Picture from the work in progress: on the mantlepiece we positioned diverse graphics in frames that relate to the economic state in a crisis. Above the mantlepiece we hang up Kiki’s face mask that you have seen above. She told us that even if times can be hard, she has to buy more and more stock from the fashion brands. She literally has to put a mask on sometimes.

‘Compliments do not cost anything’. We positioned a short catwalk and headphones in front of the huge mirror. Visitors were invited to listen to the recordings while looking at themselves. A male and a female voice said: You look good today. 2 second break. You make me smile. 2 second break. And so on. We had the strongest reactions here. Thalita Oliveira said that a woman told her that she was having a horrible day in Maastricht but to hear the compliments made her day. It’s something so simple but she was really needing it and said that she found the whole exhibition very touching.

The story of Kiki Niesten: Cheese or high-branded clothes? We made an installation where visitors should sit in the couch, wondering why a big piece of cheese is in the fireplace and a jacket hanging on the ceiling. The clarification of fact was written on the ground, like a fairytale, explaining that Kiki choose to do a fashion store, even if the cheese was tempting.

That’s how Marianna Costa and Dries Gerinckx applied the sticker foil on the ground.

A blanket and a cookie is what we need if life is hard. A small labyrinth filled with fabrics and the smell of vanilla and musk was our idea of that.
Feathers were carrying the smell and the fabrics were surrounding the guests of Kiki’s Crisis Shop. A sensual pleasure.

View of the “Changing Room”

Before leaving the “Changing Room” you were offered a treat, a small piece of delicious nougat.

We wrote “Do not forget to treat yourself before you leave.”

In order to follow the tour, we sticked KIKI S CRISIS on the ground

From left to right. 2dn row: Tecio Martins, Thalita Oliveira, Marina Costa, Dries Gerinckx. 1st row: Raya Stefanova, Jannicke Smolders, me, Jolein Versmissen and Annelies Putseys.

That’s us together at the award ceremony. I asked the students afterwards how they perceived the public day. Mariana Costa said that we made something that “everybody could appreciate”. Tecio Martins mentioned that the most interesting thing he noticed was that “people who let themselves experience the space were all the time laughing and talkative”. “The public was very enthusiastic, they always had to smile. It was very beautiful, very clear for them”, was a comment from Annelies Putseys. “Design for people is very important to me. I mean, this is exactly what we do, this is exactly what we are studying to do. So, with this workshop, I think we all learned to come back to simple things and sometimes this is just what people need to feel happy and with all that I heard, I think we definitely made a very good job” Thalita added.

We didn’t win the desired ‘The Great Expectations Award’ of the education program but maybe Kiki’s Crisis Shop is the winner of the public. While I write that, I actually realise that considering the vote of the public would be a great addition to the program and an added educative value.

You know that feeling when you are bit hungry but you need that specific something before your appetite becomes real hunger. We thought that’s what people need during a conference break. When Robert Thiemann from Frame Magazine asked me if I want to come up with an idea for a short break-out session straight after lunch during What Design Can Do it seemed to be the obvious choice to do something that evolves around an activity. The 3rd edition of the conference took place earlier this month at Leidseplein. My game partner jewelry designer Sam Hamilton and I decided to do a scavenger hunt around that area. Together with a bunch of people from the conference we were running through the city, doing Limbo under a parking barrier, trying to find Rembrandt at The Pantry and many more. But most important was that everyone laughed despite the rain and that everyone enjoyed a real small bite of play and fun before the real meal began. Have a look at What Design Can Do and and What Design Can Do for Play.

Lovely to see artist Pedro Reyes, who I have met last year in Istanbul, and his fashion designer wife Carla Fernandez. Too bad I missed their talk on Friday

Cheeky Belgian Journalist Christophe de Schauvre together with a friend

Richard van der Laken, founder of the conference, checking it all out

Lovely ladies: Jolanda Strien from Dutch DFA and freelance journalist Jeanne Tan

The fantastic Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, the location for What Design Can Do

Joany Anthonio and Stefan Achterberg from Van Lennep

Sam Hamilton and me, being fierce and making ourselves ready for the scavanger hunt

That was the meeting point for ‘Play & Hunt’ hosted by Frame Magazine

Task no. 14. ‘Take a final picture of your team with your copy of FRAME Magazine being the center point.’ We thought it will become another group shoot, but it became a colourful reference on shoes. Later that day the picture made it on stage because someone posted it on his twitter account.

Roelant Meijer from Tegenwind cheating on the Limbo task. :-)

Ewa Voelkel Krokowicz from Concordia Design, Boo Hoeboer from Adbod and Marius Regtershot from CAPAZ making a fleet of boats from leaflets from De Balie, a coffeeshop from Amsterdam

First we had to collect a napkin and then the task was ‘Dress a lizard’. At the end we dressed around 9 of the lizards that are close to the pancake corner. Note: the staff in the shop is extremely unfriendly!

Task no. 9 ‘Team Vote: Human Pyramid or your best Beyonce pose.’ They are obviously Beyonce fans.

The main conference location

This is part of the image campaign for the 5th edition of Fashionclash Maastricht that evolves around the topic of nomads as we all are creatives that move from place to place. Yesterday was day 1 and the opening of the 9 day journey that the founders of the one and only fashion event in South of Holland initiated. Make it to Maastricht and see yourself!

Branko Popovic, Naiwe Kuipers & Laurens Hamacher, the founders of Fashionclash

Backstage crew – Priscilla Roemer, Els Petite, Denise and Joyce Boumans from Sessibon

Uta Bekaia & Ideal Glass NY – Levan, Uta, Sara and Willard, who later performed in the show

Belgian fashion designer Tom van der Borght and Johannes Obers, model and source of inspiration to Tom, it seems

▼ DJ

The scenography ‘Culture Caravan’ by Studio Stad – that’s how it was assembled

The lovely team from Farouk Systems are this year responsible for hair

Colourful Romina, a face that I see almost every year backstage

White tunnel – a nomadic entry

Erwin and the Mac Cosmetics crew

Marije Hellwich in the expo matching the nomad themed event

Laurens Hamacher, I asked him to make an amusing move

It’s family business – Nawie Kuiper’s parents are involved since year 1

As much as Branko’s parents who have little Leo in the middle are supporters from the beginning

Ellen Sampson footwear in the expo

Fashionclash Models – Bo Peters, Tijana Mirceta and Sam Schobbe

Artist and performer Dennis Vanderbroeck with his blow up suit no. 1

Joris Bruring from Team Peter Stigter

Shoes by Tom van der Borght

&the Gang backstage

Tom van der Borght collection ready for the catwalk

Silent moment: briefing before the show with Laurens Hamacher, Branko Popovic, Andrei Motian, Nawie Kuipers, Joyce Boumans and Els Petite

Already 2013 !

Dana Cannam, Agata Karolina, Nicole Michniewski and Theda Schoppe in the audience of the shows

Maastricht-based actor and director Joost Horward was the host of the night. Another tradition that was kept since the first edition.

Franziska Michael from Berlin

One of the head pieces of ‘The Purple Jester’ by Uta Bekaia

Els Petite, who was running Fashionclash together with Branko and Nawie until she moved to Amsterdam. Yesterday she was celebrated as one of the founding members and a very valuable team member during each years fashionshow

A snapshot of Laura Lynn Jansen who together with her partner Thomas Vailly presented ‘Inner Fashion’ for the Clash Project

Belgian art director & graphic designer Esther Noben, who did the ‘paperdress’ for the CLASH Project with her friend Tine Swijns

Fashionclash & all their interns!

Your own expectations can be your own enemy. I decided to try not to have any. That doesn’t mean it always works. In fact, at design events you sometimes have to make an effort to understand what you are expecting, what they will provide for you and what they are assuming you will take home from it. I go to Design Miami Basel because I consider it as obligatory, even if I play my own games in a less commercial context. I enjoy it to to enter a contrasting scenario.

There I was standing in front of the Victor Hunt‘s booth, observing the people that stopped to take a picture of the ‘a million times’ piece by Humans Since 1982, who will eventually upload their images to an overrated tumblr or Instagram account with no thought or reference, being afraid that someone thinks they missed what is cool. Julien Carretero was standing next to me, being amused by my excitement that Kayne West passed by.

At some point I entered the booth and couldn’t find a name tag to the ‘never seen before’ work in front of me. That was irritating, but good because it allowed me to look first at what I saw before I put it in context to some designer I know. Julien mentions in passing that is’s his newest work for Victor Hunt. Really?

I was excited, simply because I know Julien since 2008 (drawn interview) and followed his work since than. One of his previous projects that I reported on, the Stencil Project, that I took a picture of wrapped in foil in his studio couple months ago, became almost a tiering project that was attached to unfulfilled expectations to the process. His goals were always high.

We talked about the feeling of being satisfied in what you do and the pleasure of making. He smiled in the most honest way. It must have been pleasurable for him to work on what was in front of me. I told him that one aspect of my unexpected positive reaction is also related to the fact that it felt like the work was done by a female designer, not by a beared French designer. He laughed. And I liked the work more.

The ‘Contrast’ lamps are made of aluminium, brass, steel, stainless steel, copper and bronze. It stands for the differences of inside and outside or heavy and light, for example. The shapes of each light emerge from the tubular steel and shaped sheets of metal. I thought I couldn’t see any project made in oxidized metal since Lex Pott, who had done also an excellent job in that field, but it turns out I was wrong.

There is also mirror polishing, lacquering, various types of brushing, anodizing, chemical darkening, some traditional patinas involved. Oxydyzing is one among others. He says that “Technically, the most challenging part of the project is not on the finishes but on the way the metal profiles are machined to obtain the shapes.” Most lamps feel like a planned experiment. All feel light and playful. Some of them remind me of Memphis, possibly because of the colourways. Especially the green one on the ground.

I didn’t expect anything and came across the personal development of Julien Carretero. What I took home is a memorable and sincere moment with him that took me by surprise and the fact that my excitement stopped me from taking a picture with Kayne – there is a win, there is a loss!

I snapped him later on stage when he premiered his upcoming album via his laptop at Design Miami/Basel. It was a disappointing performance when you saw him really performing live in the O2 arena London before. Well, weren’t I talking about expectations before?

Neolithic II collection by Guilio Parini – before the ceramics were fired a 2nd time

Depot Basel works with designers. In the last two years, since we self-initiated our flexible place for contemporary design, we worked with a long list of various designers. (have a look at our recent review video) Sometimes it excites us to see how these designers that like to work with craft deal with an uncommon task. That’s why we were thrilled to ask the 13 designers we invited for the CRAFT & DRAWING exhibition to make an artistic drawing. We exhibited these unique pieces in a classic Lehni frame together with their crafted objects. This week I will be in Basel again. We are always happy to have some rare visitors from far away during Art Basel but we are alos enjoying the times after the sleek and shiny week. Anyway, we are closing the show this weekend. Come and see it from Thursday – Saturday daily from 2 – 7 pm and get a personal tour. For now, enjoy the images.

Digitized State of Transience by Sander Wassink – ongoing responsive design process

Weld drawings by Josh Bitelli – he used a MIG welder and drew coils in molten steel.

Water Marble and Patina by Lola Lely – Lola was so sweet and made many posts about the exhibition and the cast bronze and marble patterned objects she is showing with us on her website. Just have a browse and you will find a lot info about it.

Craft & Drawing catalogue – graphic design by Johannes Breyer . 68 pages in full colour with details about each designer and their work including texts by Evonne Mackenzie and Mateo Kries. If you can’t make it to the show yourself, we are selling the catalogue for 10 Euro / 10 CHF excl. packaging and shipping. Just drop a line to rk@depotbasel.ch

Craft & Drawing catalogue – pictures by severafrahm

Entry of the new temporary Depot Basel at Uferstrasse 90, at the harbor in Basel

Drawing by Liliana Ovalle – it illustrates narratives around the series of sinkhole vessels she made with the ceramists Colectivo 1050 ° from Oaxaca, Mexico

Drawing by Ya Wen Chou – a reference to her trip to Iceland

1,2,3 by Klara Sumova - three powder coated steel trays and their drawn poetic reference in chalk on paper in the background

Fabien Cappello with his work – the drawing with various typologies of a clock and his ‘clock 2013′

Lina Zedig, Dieter van den Strom, Ward Verbakel and Fredrik Paulsen

Precious objects by Ya Wen Chou – started as an exploration of traditional craft from Taiwan

The signs that lead to the new space – frankly speaking, if we could afford it, we would hang more posters up. But that’s unfortunately very expensive in Basel and if you do it, you get a fine

A space with view on the Rhine

Leather Needlework part 2, colorblocks by Lio de Bruin

Meret Ernst from Hochpaterre, Mathie Rohrer from Bertille & Mathieu and Rebekka Kiesewetter

Maria Jeglinska (she obviously has no idea that I took a picture of her)

Thank you lovely Christine Benz for taking all opening images you find on our website

Rebekka Kieswetter and Patrizia Haller

Nicole Irizarry, Julien Carretero and Charlotte D’Argance at the opening, Monday 10 June

Will Yates Johnson and Philippe Malouin looking at the work by Lukas Wegwerth

Tijana Mirceta in Tymek Jezierski & Maria Zaleska, Janneke Jeurissen in Esther Noben, the purple suit is part of the outfit by fantastic photographer Madame Peripetie and the paper suit is worn by performer Dennis Vanderbroeck which is designed by Art Director Rob Truijen

Mask by Belgian textile designer Hermine van Dijck

I run this blog since 2007. A long time. The CLASH PROJECT is probably my 2nd longest project. Since 2009 it became a direct reference to the FASHIONCLASH attitude, blurring all lines between art, design, knowledge and experiment. All aspects brought together to a project that asks non-fashion designers to make a wearable piece of work, preferably made from the material they use in their profession.

Detail of ‘Parfüm’ the outfit by graphic designer Christoph Knoth.
His girlfriend Magdalena Stark assisted him.

Each year the results are unexpected, experimental bodysuits that are different in colour, shape and material. None of the 50 (49 in total unfortunately) outfits look alike. They are a reference of each participants work, each telling a story and showing a very personal intake in their way of working in an unacquainted fashion context.

Detail of a dress from Inner fashion, a production line made by
Laura Lynn Jansen and Thomas Vailly

The 5th edition was presented on the 31st of May 2013 as one of the opening shows of the annual self-initiated fashion event FASHIONCLASH in Maastricht.

All pieces of ‘Ro-shell’ by creative studio llot llov

That’s how ‘Ro-shell’ should be worn

Outfit by Maria Jeglinska followed by the rest

Noël Hermsen from Sessibon coaching the girls

That is the part that is missing on the first image with the purple full bodysuit of Madame Peripetie

The wedding dress by bag & accessoiries designer Ellen Truijen

Ellen Truijen herself with model Larisa Din before she leaves for the opening show on the catwalk

Wilderman by Hermine van Dijck worn by Kiki Willems

Post Colonial Cipher by Agata Karolina during the photoshoot with severfrahm

Fashionclash 2013 catalogue by Ivo Straetmans with images by severfrahm
On the left work by designer Maria Jeglinska on the right by photographer Madame Peripetie

Impressions of the day. The whole project is visible in 1:17

Fashionclash 2013 – Day 1 from Team Peter Stigter on Vimeo.

5 years of the CLASH Project 2009 – 2013 – photographed by
Christoph Sagel, Muller3000, Lonneke van der Palen and severfrahm

Previous participants were designer Jo Meesters, crocheting artist Olek, graphic designer Sue Doeksen, Dutch collective La Bolleur, artist Nicole Michniewski, photograoher Valentina Vos, artist Tanja Ritterbex, Swiss textile designer Fabia Zindel, Polish set designer Natalia Kacper Mleczak, space design researcher Regina Peldszus just to name a few.

Will Yates-Johnson, Phillipe Malouin and Eva Feldkamp, team & family

Two days ago we went to the opening of Phillipe Malouin ‘s solo exhibition in Italy. A show curated by Maria Cristina Didero for PROJECTB Gallery in Milan – a fantastic venue separated in five sleek rooms with neon lights on the ceiling. Literally made for Philippe’s array of work that the team developed within the last two years. The presentation refers to the Brutalist architecture of Juliaan Lampens.

Shelf of the ‘Slat’series

’1-4′ bowls

Will Yates-Johnson and Corinna Gardner from the V&A

MDF Wall Pieces

Pendulum Installation

‘Functional Shapes’ bookstand

‘Type Cast’ chair

Philippe Malouin, Alvin Chan, Will Yates-Johnson and Sacha Leong, all his best friend came from London to celebrate with Philippe

As if the world knew Philippe loves to wear black, all dressed accordingly

Philipp C Schöpfer – similarities with a pig’s roast were not intentional :-)

Analog Blast was the title of the exhibition presented by Domus at this years Milan Design Week. Photographs of Italian and international designers captured by the lens of long-time contributor Ramak Fazel. Over the years I have collected many photographs of the weird, lovely and random encounters with designers too. I won’t dare to compare myself with him, but I do want to share some photographs form last weeks Milan Design Week with you. There are so many that are fun that I had to separate them in two parts. Here comes number one.

Max Lipsey, Marco Lorusso and Maria Jeglinska – a la Nouvelle Vague

Frame Award winning Laura Lynn Jansen & Thomas Vailly with Andrea Simone

Philippe Malouin and Till Weber (no glasses) – chapter 1

Till Weber and Philippe Malouin – chapter 2

The New York boys: Pin-up Felix Burrichter and Alex Mustonen

Goldielocks Rose Etherington

Smiley Stephane Halmai Voisard and Philippe Albert Lefebvre, I always have to tripple check the spelling of their names!

Suited and booted Tal Erez

Feeling like Sardines at Wallpaper Max Lipsey and Adam Stech

Daniel Klapsing looking cheeky with elegant Barbara Bondi

Jon Stam, happy designer of the future

Beautiful Eva Feldkamp

Gregory Buntain – Knight of the Rose

I collected an array of images with people wearing my sunglasses – this is Jacob Brinck

‘Discovering Women in Polish Design – chapter 2′: Anka Simone Pietrzyk, Agata Karolina Niemkiewicz, Maria Jeglinska, Kasia Jezowska and me

Arwen Chou & Irene Shih OSB Style

Fredrik Paulsen & the Swedes with übercool Connie Hüsser

London & studio friends: Bernadette Deddens, a friend of them, Yeal Mer, Tetsuo Mukai and Shay Alkalay

Twiggy Rebekka Kiesewetter and Ania Bauer

Emmanuel Mbessé

Emmanuel Mbessé’s shoes & yellow socks

David Derksen and Lex Pott – looking smart

After 1 comes 2. Here is a second bash of images from last month’s Milan Design Week. Just faces, no objects = a lot of fun! For these who missed the first image drop check here: http://matandme.com/milano-digital-blast-chapter-1/

Ben Chiu and dapper Canadian designer Dana Cannam

Shikai Hikai, Lex Pott and Andrea Magnani – 3 of the ‘little daily wonders’

The Swiss: Livia Lauber, Laetitia De Allegri and Veronika Gombert

Rachel Griffin, Daniel Klapsing and Philipp Schopfer at the packed Wallpaper event

A fine couple – Vienna-based Maciej Chmara and Ania Rosinke

Idyllic – Till Weber and Miriam Vogel from Vitra

Barbara Bondi and Marco Raino from Inresidence together with some designers and students from their recent Workshop ‘Little Daily Wonders’

Simona Venier, Uli Budde, Philipp Schopfer, Maria Jeglinska, Daniel Klapsing and me (in the mirror) dinner around midnight

Johanna Agerman Ross at the Disegno breakfast

PR lady Olga Zhuravleva

Pascale Wakim and Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte from Carwan Gallery

Dan Yeffet at the Nouvlle Vague opening

Architect Tomas Soucek with Jan Kloss and Matěj Činčera from Okolo at A-C-E

Ola Mirecka from RCA at the WORKS show

Smiley, cheeky Valentina Ciuffi from Abitaire

Willem van der Sluis and Richard van der Laken – What Design Can Do?

Christian Fiebig, Itay Ohaly, Thomas Vailly winners of the Frame Moooi Award together with Robert Thiemann & his colleague from Frame Magazine

Happily laughing Agata Karolina Niemkiewicz

Lunch at Latteria San Marco with Jill & Monica from the ubercoolest Blog Sightunseen and their Architect friend Alex Mustonen

Tal Erez, Tobias Revell and Mauri Monalti – city boys

Music entertainment at Wallpaper Party

Daddy and his kids? Jacob Brinck and Ania Bauer with Alfredo Häberli

Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin – waving goodbye

Hermès boys

Wilpert Dreesmann from Particles Gallery

Berlin loving galerist Francois Leblanc

Journalists Maya Dvash and Yuval Saar from Israel – ‘Write the next chapter’

1 – Alvin Chan, Will Yates-Johnson, Philippe Malouin, Connie Hüsser, Dieter van den Strom, Sacha Leong, me and Till Weber

2 – …

Spreading love at Bar Basso – James Patmore, Jacob Brinck, Rebekka Kiesewetter
and Arnaud Cooren

Italian Food designer Jacopo Sarzi with my sunglasses (he is a damn good dancer)

Another Italian Food Designer Francesca Sarti

Lola Lely is one of the designers that my Depot Basel colleague Rebekka Kieswetter and I put immediately on the list of the designers that we wanted to approach for our Craft & Drawing exhibition. For us she was a real find from last year’s London Design Festival. I visited Lola in her studio in East London a few months ago. She shares a a studio house in a backyard of an residential area with 2 other designers. The tiny space she has for herself is filled with colourful drawings and material samples that represents a diversity of marbling aesthetics. During our conversation she pointed out that she sees her work as a collection, not necessarily as individual projects – comparable to a fashion collection. That’s why you will see three of their projects at the show – they simply belong together.

Lola actually left England as a teenager for many years and lived in Mexico. One of her motivations to explore the country was to see Frida Kahlo’s blue house. “I wanted to see the Frida Kahlo Blue House in Mexico City. I was really into magical realism genre books as a young girl. My favourite books were and still: ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ and ‘The Master and Margarita’. Then I saw a picture of this artist Frida Kahlo in a magazine. She looked so arrogant, knowing, assertive, rebellious and vulnerable. I could identify with this at age 15! So I read all about her (the days before the internet was common) and this blue house which she grew up and died in was so interesting, as it held so many memories and stories. There was a period of Frida’s life at the blue house were it was an artists and political sanctuary. Leon Trotsky, Paul Klee and marxist intellectuals stayed there.”

I had the biggest smile on my face when she send us a picture of the artistic drawing, a self-portrait, she made for the Craft & Drawing exhibition next month. I send her an email back immediately: “Dear Lola, on your drawing you look like Mexican gipsy, surrounded by your work, remembering your encounter with Frida Kahlo, that changed your way of looking at life and your work, back then when you spend flamboyant nights with her in her blue house.” I can’t wait to see it in a frame.

Material samples – Lola shares her way of working on her website The New Collectivism

Drawings of Patina Candlesticks for this year’s Wallpaper Handmade edition

Patina Candelsticks at Wallpaper at L’Eclettico during Salone del Mobile 2013

Drawings of Patina Lights

Patina Lights at Lola’s collective WORKs: Royal College of Art Graduates

Drawings of suspended lights

DRAW YOURSELF

DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN ONE WORD

DRAW YOUR FAVOURITE OBJECT

Nothing is new when you meet weird friends that become new friends – Kelly Rakowski and Alexandra Segreti stalked each others blogs for a while until they started to work together. They liked the selection, the presentation and attitude of the other. This adoration eventually lead to a collaboration that is based on fine handmade weavings. I saw it myself when I bumped into the girls at Matter gallery New York. Both started to work on a 3 meter long piece, specially made for the gallery, which has to be finished today. The large-scale weaving stretches from floor to ceiling on a custom built loom. There might be nothing new about weavings, handmade carpets and wall pieces, but they obviously developed a common language that makes working together a non effort activity.

Kelly’s weaving comb (Alexandra got exactly the same)

Detail of the large-scale weaving for Matter

A ‘New Friends’ wall piece

Alexandra & Kelly in the middle of the making

One end of the loom – the largest commission they made so far

Alexandra Segreti:
DRAW YOURSELF

DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN ONE WORD

DRAW YOUR FAVORITE OBJECT

Kelly Rakowski :
DRAW YOURSELF

DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN ONE WORD

DRAW YOUR FAVORITE OBJECT

I know, it’s almost December and ICFF was when we didn’t have to wear a sweater, a coat, a scarf and when the umbrella stayed at home, too. This is, as usually when the title is ‘IMAGE DROP’, a very random selection of images. But this time it starts with adornment for a door handle.

It’s hard to find exceptional door handles. I managed to find some of them at ICFF. This door handle ( more on their website) is by architecture firm Olson Kundig Architects, Tom Kundig Collection – Hardware at its best! Top image is a photograph of the card the other image is from the fair.

Nils Becker from Architonic taking pictures at the MoMa – Museum of Modern Art party

Polish Cultural ambassador Basia Krzeska and ceramist Dagmara Rodgers at the MoMa – Museum of Modern Art party

Bumped into them twice during the 4 days – first at Fort Standard‘s party at the Bowery Hotel and than at the MoMa. Charlie Rudgard and Lee Broom – usually we see each other randomly around Shoreditch in London

Jeremy Liebman photographing the Wonder Cabinets of Europe, a project by Livia Lauber and Maria Jeglinska. I was invited to the 2nd edition that was presented at ICFF.

Maria Jeglinska together with Livia Lauber in front of their stand at ICFF

Dirk van der Kooij accidentally received the award for Body of work – after the ceremony he swapped it with the grey haired person who got Best New Designer. Well, in such a short time, he did produce a wide range of products, but that doesn’t justify the term ‘body of work’ yet.

I spotted a classic: 50s hand & foot paper weight by Carl Auboeck at ICFF

Arena bowls made from concrete by Austrian designer Klemens Schillinger at the Designboom mart at ICFF. It reminds me of an ancient greek panathenaic stadium.

A giant billboard in front of the Javits Convention Center

This one is for you Monica!

Hilda Hellstrom at Matter Gallery

Poster by David Shrigley at Here & There the first major event of Field and NYC’s Various Projects. The collaboration stocked some carefully selected goods at at the Lower East Side store Project No. 8.

One of the other goods were these marble dumbbells. Marble might be not a surprising material choice anymore, but here it works for me beautifully.

Czech Pedal Project Magazine no. 3 in NY !

Poster by Tim Colmant

I am publishing this images a 2nd time. Before I posted it together with the Drawn Interview with Jonah Takegi – it’s a good example of good contemporary design. Again – well done, Oscar Diaz! Get yourself one here.

Quilt chocolate by Alissia Melka Teichroew

Alissia Melka Teichroew herself and the delivery man

“Flashing” Pauline Deltour

I bumped into Lucy Kurrein on the fair. She recently left PearsonLloyd in order to work independently as a designer. You find her in London.

A trashy but cosy dinner at a Mexican restaurant somewhere in Lower Manhattan: Dirk van der Kooij, Sam Grawe, Leon Ransmeier, Pauline Deltour, Maria Jeglinska, Tiffany Lambert, Livia Lauber etc..

What happens after the picture?

And after dinner?

Stella Triangle by Rosie Li for Roll & Hill – definitely not a bargain

Paul Loebach fighting back.

Red is her colour: lovely Kim Birks.

This is part of the image campaign for the 5th edition of Fashionclash Maastricht that evolves around the topic of nomads as we all are creatives that move from place to place. Yesterday was day 1 and the opening of the 9 day journey that the founders of the one and only fashion event in South of Holland initiated. Make it to Maastricht and see yourself!

Branko Popovic, Naiwe Kuipers & Laurens Hamacher, the founders of Fashionclash

Backstage crew – Priscilla Roemer, Els Petite, Denise and Joyce Boumans from Sessibon

Uta Bekaia & Ideal Glass NY – Levan, Uta, Sara and Willard, who later performed in the show

Belgian fashion designer Tom van der Borght and Johannes Obers, model and source of inspiration to Tom, it seems

▼ DJ

The scenography ‘Culture Caravan’ by Studio Stad – that’s how it was assembled

The lovely team from Farouk Systems are this year responsible for hair

Colourful Romina, a face that I see almost every year backstage

White tunnel – a nomadic entry

Erwin and the Mac Cosmetics crew

Marije Hellwich in the expo matching the nomad themed event

Laurens Hamacher, I asked him to make an amusing move

It’s family business – Nawie Kuiper’s parents are involved since year 1

As much as Branko’s parents who have little Leo in the middle are supporters from the beginning

Ellen Sampson footwear in the expo

Fashionclash Models – Bo Peters, Tijana Mirceta and Sam Schobbe

Artist and performer Dennis Vanderbroeck with his blow up suit no. 1

Joris Bruring from Team Peter Stigter

Shoes by Tom van der Borght

&the Gang backstage

Tom van der Borght collection ready for the catwalk

Silent moment: briefing before the show with Laurens Hamacher, Branko Popovic, Andrei Motian, Nawie Kuipers, Joyce Boumans and Els Petite

Already 2013 !

Dana Cannam, Agata Karolina, Nicole Michniewski and Theda Schoppe in the audience of the shows

Maastricht-based actor and director Joost Horward was the host of the night. Another tradition that was kept since the first edition.

Franziska Michael from Berlin

One of the head pieces of ‘The Purple Jester’ by Uta Bekaia

Els Petite, who was running Fashionclash together with Branko and Nawie until she moved to Amsterdam. Yesterday she was celebrated as one of the founding members and a very valuable team member during each years fashionshow

A snapshot of Laura Lynn Jansen who together with her partner Thomas Vailly presented ‘Inner Fashion’ for the Clash Project

Belgian art director & graphic designer Esther Noben, who did the ‘paperdress’ for the CLASH Project with her friend Tine Swijns

Fashionclash & all their interns!