At the exhibition Connecting Concepts, visitors can get a glimpse of the Netherlands' secrets of success. The exhibition will remain open at the Designhuis in Eindhoven through Sunday 20 May. To conclude the exhibition, the curator of Connecting Concepts, Ed van Hinte, will give a free guided tour on Sunday 20 May at 2pm and 4pm. After that the exhibition travels on to DMY International Design Festival Berlin.
What makes Dutch design so unique?
Usually, Dutch design is displayed as a collection of objects, many by star designers. Connecting Concepts is different: the exhibition demonstrates the processes behind the designs. It is these processes, including collaboration between the designer and the commissioning party, the use of new and different technologies, and the willingness of those involved to "reinvent the wheel", that make design from the Netherlands distinctive and unique.
Marcel Wanders's famous Knotted Chair, created through the marriage of traditional, authentic methods with contemporary knowledge and materials, is one example. In a way, the same can be said of a project from Zuid-Holland, in which sand is deposited at strategic sites off the coast and the sea is left to reinforce the dykes, with the currents sweeping the sand away and leaving it in the right places. The idea originated from traditional dyke construction and polder drainage methods; the innovation was made possible by modern-day knowledge and a design-based approach.
In the exhibition, curator Ed van Hinte, of Lightness Studios, links the featured designs according to themes relating to their processes of creation.
A dynamic exhibition
Connecting Concepts, a travelling exhibition, welcomes new designs and principles from the Netherlands and other countries it tours. The show constitutes an opportunity for dialogue among various design cultures, through discussions by visitors, designers and producers.
A joint production
Connecting Concepts was composed by curator Ed van Hinte and is a Premsela initiative. We created the exhibition in collaboration with the Netherlands Architecture Institute and Capital D, the design cooperative of the Eindhoven Brainport region. The exhibition is part of the Dutch Design Fashion Architecture programme.
Premsela at the Designhuis
Premsela will programme events at the Designhuis at least through 2012, in collaboration with Brainport and the city of Eindhoven.
“It’s important that Dutch designers get an exhibition space in the Netherlands where design receives consistent attention, international developments in design are showcased, and we can display Dutch design in an international context,” says Els van der Plas, Premsela's managing director.
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