Design DayDesign Day

Design Day will feature special detours through the installations Archives at Risk and the Droog30. Design or Non-design?; a panel discussion with international pioneering archivists and a reflection on the legacy of design institutions Premsela and the Netherlands Design Institute; a conversation moderated by the Droog30. Design or Non-design? curators, with an intervention by The New Stijl. The Design Night party will close off the day with dancing until midnight.

Programme

How will we remember today’s most exciting designers in 50 years? And how much do we know about who created the work that has inspired today’s cutting-edge design? In the Netherlands, and globally, design and digital culture archives are under threat. Fortunately, archivists are finding innovative ways to preserve these vital records and make them accessible to new audiences. With: James Parnell from Pirate Bay Archive, Kinda Ghannoum & Sally Alassafen of Syrian Graphic Design Archive and Joel Derksen & Patrick Pittman of Nor: A Living and Open Commons of Canadian Design. Moderated by Alice Twemlow.

Aric Chen, Nieuwe Instituut’s General and Artistic Director, talks to some of his predecessors: the former directors of the Netherlands Design Institute and Premsela, which was controversially merged with other institutions to form (Het) Nieuwe Instituut in 2013. Els van der Plas, Dingeman Kuilman and John Thackara will reflect on how design has changed since then, and how design institutions might change with it.

A dual event about design movements, featuring the Droog30. Design or Non-design? installation and design platform The New Stijl. Aric Chen will moderate a conversation with Droog30. Design or Non-design? curators Maria Cristina Didero and Richard Hutten, Droog founders Renny Ramakers and Gijs Bakker together with Marco Sammicheli, Director of Museo del Design Italiano amongst others. The talk will include a contribution by The New Stijl platform of creatives as they share their kaleidoscopic visions on design as a practice of the future.

Visit all our exhibitions until late, enjoy a cocktail at the bar of Het Nieuwe Café and dance until midnight to the sounds of DJ FEMMETASTIC from Rotterdam collective Blush Soundsystem!

Detours

Together with our detour guides – Nieuwe Instituut’s team of tour guides – you can experience new ways of looking, thinking and designing. The detours will take you on an expedition through the installations Archives at Risk, Droog30. Design or Non-design? and the building of the Nieuwe Instituut.

Design from the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning

Dive into the world of Gerrit Rietveld and other iconic designers whose work is included in the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning.

In Archives at Risk, on view from 11 May, features six leading designers: Borre Akkersdijk (BYBORRE), Hella Jongerius, Moniker, Jason Page & Karen Huang, Lies Ros and heirs of Emile Truijen. They present their archives and share personal stories on how they themselves have created, acquired or used archives. They also open up about the painful prospect that, if no one takes care of the archives, they will be lost.

Droog30. Design or Non-design? is an installation devoted to iconic Dutch design brand Droog. Together with Triennale Milano the installation was presented during the Salone del Mobile design fair in Milan and now is on show at Nieuwe Instituut. Curators Maria Cristina Didero and Richard Hutten mark Droog’s 30–year anniversary by revisiting a selection of its striking furniture, home accessories, lighting and other products – complete with tales of their creation and reception. With contributions of designers Renny Ramakers, Gijs Bakker, Hella Jongerius, Formafantasma and others.

The New Stijl features “Dutch creativity beyond borders” with designers, artists, photographers, architects, and other creatives brought together in a book. A collaboration between ...,staat and MENDO, this “festival of a book” is not a portfolio, a greatest hits or an academic tome.

Header image: Graphic design: Jacob Hoving. Photography by Tim Elkaïm

Design Day is organised in collaboration with: