Archives at Risk: Christophe CoppensArchives at Risk: Christophe Coppens

Ranging from product-, furniture-, graphic design to social design and digital productions: The Netherlands is famous for its design and digital culture. However, hardly any attention is paid to the archives of designers. An important part of Dutch design memory therefore is at risk of disappearing, as the Netherlands currently lacks a central policy and structural funding to preserve these archives. And it is precisely the archives that offer insight into the social context of the artistic practice, innovative techniques and pioneering experiments. This installation, initiated by the Network for Archives of Design and Digital Culture (NADD) and networkpartner Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, brings the issue to the surface.

Belgian artist, designer and opera director Christophe Coppens (b. 1969) designed accessories for the fashion industry for over twenty years. In 2012, he had to close his fashion house due to bankruptcy. While dealing with the bankruptcy, the archive is not valued and thrown away by accident. Photographs, experiments, documentation: all the archival material from a twenty-one yearlong artistic practice is lost. From an emotional standpoint, Coppens creates the artwork Everything is Local. In this large installation, he incorporates all the remnants of his design practice and archive into 50 sculptures. The work was commissioned by writer and collector Han Nefkens (b. 1954), who lent it to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

Of the 50 sculptures in Everything is Local, four of them feature a broken-up archive. All the material Coppens had left, he piled it into four ‘mountains’ and poured over it with glue and pigment. Twelve years later, Coppens has put the loss of his archive to rest. He now wants to recover his archive by buying back certain pieces and copying materials. When Coppens' turned his archive into works of art, it automatically became an irreversible end product and so the remaining archive became inaccessible.

The presentation is on view until the 10th of June 2024 in the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen.

Archives at Risk: Seeking Shelter is curated by Annemartine van Kesteren (Curator of Design at Boijmans Van Beuningen) and designed by spatial designer Ben Shamier. This year, the installation will be on display at various NADD partners and showcase endangered archives.

As there is not one central organisation in the Netherlands that takes care of the design heritage, several organisations and makers united in 2021 in the Network Archives Design and Digital Culture (NADD). The network focuses on exchanging knowledge on archiving, making design archives visible, and developing a digital infrastructure to make the multitude of archives accessible. The aim is, on the one hand, to show the importance of this heritage to society and, on the other hand, to find a more sustainable solution for the conservation and preservation of these archives. NADD consists of over 40 partners: large and small heritage institutions that manage archives, designers, professional organizations, educational institutions, and experts in the field of design.