DDW at Van Abbemuseum - With DRIFT, Open Archive, Artistic Journalism and GEO—DESIGN

During the Dutch Design week, the Van Abbemuseum is open daily from 11 to 18 hrs. Click here for ticket info.

Installation DRIFT

Dutch Design Week ambassadors Ralph Nauta and Lonneke Gordijn of DRIFT première a new project part of the Materialism series: Materialism - The bag project. The DDW theme “If not now, then when” echoes the urgent need to take action to save our planet. The installation visualizes the physical amount of plastic that exits each AH supermarket on an average day in Eindhoven. One block is made of one recycled plastic shopping bag. Together the blocks form a sculpture that evolves every time a bag leaves the store.

In addition, video clips shot in front of supermarkets display the rhythmic movements of doors opening and closing to an abstraction that demonstrates our habit of laziness. Materialism- The bag project aims to bring awareness about the quantity of material extracted from the earth for everyday objects. On show from 19 to 27 October in het Oog, free admission. Performance DRIFT x Van Abbemuseum: Sunday 20 and 27 October from 13 to 14 hrs.

Materialism - The bag project is part of DRIFT's Materialism series: an ongoing research project that investigates the de-construction or "de-production" of everyday objects. Exact quantities of materials from iconic products such as a Volkswagen Beetle or a pencil are presented in their pure geometry and colors. With a sculpture of blue blocks, The bag project visualizes the physical amount of plastic that every Albert Heijn supermarket leaves on an average day in Eindhoven. With the purchase of 1 block of plastic from the sculpture, you donate an amount to the recycling project #preciousplastic by Dave Hakkens. You can buy the numbered plastic cubes in our museum store.

Open Archive

Reuse of digital collections in museums and archives produces new stories in potentially surprising, innovative forms. For Open Archive, Het Nieuwe Instituut and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision have invited makers to create new work using archive items from their digital collections. Artist Guy Königstein, filmmaker Donna Verheijden and artist/designer Oana Clitan will develop new media works based on both institutions’ online digital collections as part of the Open Archive project.
Oana Clitan's project, Future news, official screens, uses past and present news rhetorics to make a speculation about how information will be presented in the future. Silent conference rooms, empty staircases, dusty shelves, long corridors and at their end: closed doors. Frozen spaces from times gone by provide a stage for uncalled visitors in Guy Königstein’s Dear past, what would it take to throw you off balance? With the speculative thriller The Stolen Archive, Donna Verheijden makes connections between the stories and events that are hidden in the archives of Het Nieuwe Instituut and Beeld en Geluid. On display from 19 to 27 October in the Werksalon, admission free.

GEO—DESIGN: Junk

From satellite graveyards to dead stock via the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, GEO—DESIGN: Junk. All That Is Solid Melts into Trash explores global systems of discarded things. This city-wide exhibition, produced in collaboration with the Van Abbemuseum, showcases 18 thought-provoking projects by Design Academy Eindhoven alumni. The exhibition takes place at ten locations throughout the city of Eindhoven. Nine projects will be shown in the Van Abbemuseum (until 17 November next). On display from 19 to 17 November in the Oudbouw, entrance during DDW only with DDW-ticket. More information.

Artistic Journalism | An Introduction 

Although creatives are often hired by news media to visually support journalistic content, a new generation of engaged artists and designers experiments with autonomous media forms that are innovative in journalism and enrich the artistic sector.

They analyse urgent social themes in a journalistic way and present their results in projects that are rich and layered in content, method and form. This interdisciplinary approach to design, art and journalism we summarise under the title Artistic Journalism.

On Thursday October 24 a public podcast programme will be organised in which IJsbrand van Veelen enters into a conversation with artists, designers and journalists whose work can be counted as Artistic Journalism. The program consists of five conversations that will be published as podcasts. 

12 to 13 hrs Koert van Mensvoort (Next Nature Network)
13 to 14 hrs Annet Henneman
14 to 15 hrs Robert Glas
15 to 16 hrs Irene Stracuzzi
16 to 17 hrs Coralie Vogelaar 

Interested in attending one or more of the recordings? Reservations can be made via this website.

The project Artistic Journalism | An Introduction is a collaboration between ACED and Stijn Postema (PhD researcher at Media Studies, University of Amsterdam) and aims to investigate and identify this new field of coexisting practices. Artistic Journalism | An Introduction has been honoured with a grant from the Creative Industries Fund NL.