The Object is Absent

Soort: Curation
Opdrachtgever: MU Artspace

These are challenging times for designers, aren’t they: why add still more objects to a world that is running low on resources to produce them? True, there is a clear trend towards sustainable design, but that doesn’t necessarily change our relationship to the object – or to each other. The Object is Absent radically rephrases the question: what if we make an exhibition without objects? Suddenly, the attention shifts to representation, to sound, experience, embodiment, and the interaction between designers and visitors. Removing the commodity as a status symbol hints at possibilities for a more equal society, less obsessed with possession. Without objects, the exhibition becomes a performance where visitors purchase actions, and designers enact their ideas. It is about singing, dancing, tasting design, creating it together.
The Object is Absent, presented in MU Artspace during Dutch Design Week 2019, is a collaborative project of curatorial team Alexandre Humbert, Tom Loois, Lucas Maassen and Angelique Spaninks.

Participating designers are: Alexandre Humbert, Alvin Arthur, Andreas Refsgaard, Dorota Gazy, Elise ’t Hart & Nils Davidse, Giulia Soldati, Govert Flint, Ivi van Keulen, Louis De Belle, Lucas Maassen, Mark Henning, Mary Caye, Noud Sleumer, Rawad Baaklini, Thom van Ryckevorsel, Vivien Tauchmann, en Woody Veneman.

Pictures: Dave Menkehorst