Looking for a new owner
Mouth-watering spoons no.28, 29 & 30
Wannabe mirror no. 4
Daily handkerchief no. 28 & 29
Author: @droog
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All photos are by Stefanie Grätz (excluding the photos of the original lots, prior to revival by designer) .
A selection of yesterday’s new owners
Eleonara Crugnola, the new owner of Mouth watering spoons no.1 & 2
Christoforos Roumpakis, new owner of 100 blue containers no.1
Fotis Terzakis bought Wannabe mirror no.1
Mario Kranenborg bought Wannabe mirror no. 2
Centraal Museum Utrecht is a new owner!
The museum purchased one or two items of every design today! Here they are with Fun-for-dogs-basket no.1 and the 3 stars bomb! no. 2.
Sitting on the one and only XX chair.
FAQ with Renny Ramakers
What was the motivation behind the exhibition?
“The emphasis in Milan has always been to present new products. Much of the innovation comes from new materials and techniques and the outcome is more products. The drive for the new is endless—it is demanded by our profession and the market for survival.
At this exhibition we are responding to this demand by reviving leftovers—existing products that still have their basic functionality intact, but somehow have lost their place and have become undesirable and unused. We saw this as a perfect opportunity for a revival.”
Why are you interested in using leftovers?
Three reasons:
a) to save them from the landfill (relating to the environmental crisis)
b) as an innovative business model (relating to the financial crisis)
c) to challenge designers to shift from ‘how to design something it’ to ‘what to do with it’ and to see what new qualities this can bring.
Do you see new qualities in the designs?
“If we gave them a different brief, for example, to design new cutlery, we would have never gotten the response we received. The designer would have concentrated on how to design it, rather than on what to do with it. In Ed Annink’s case, the knife is still a knife, but it is also a mirror for the eyes (he put a little magnet for hanging it somewhere). There is a double function that I’ve never seen with cutlery.”
And in the example of the ‘Read before you eat table,’ the design aspect is not in the table per se, but on the message on the table, urging you to take an action before eating.”
Were the outcomes what you expected?
“Not at all! I never could have expected the ‘3 star bomb!’ by Atelier Ted Noten—a whimsical narrative from 500 very ordinary matchboxes. Or the design by Studio Makkink & Bey—they turned handkerchiefs into a new kind of very slow world news carrier, one that distributes articles personally selected by Jurgen Bey on a medium that the reader can then embellish with embroidery and that can be kept in the pocket.
In the Netherlands we say ‘newspaper of today is for packing the fish tomorrow’. Jurgen made a newspaper in a completely different way. It’s particularly timely with the arrival of the iPad. The responses are diverse, and that makes the project stronger.”
What’s the difference between Droog in the nineties, and what we see at this exhibition today?
“Re-using the old is a familiar concept for us, but never have we done it at this scale. Our interest in this project was to see if using unwanted remains could be turned into a coherent business model—as a valid approach to developing a ‘new’ collection (which also by definition exists in limited editions). Timeliness is also critical—the financial crisis means developing new products in the old way is just not good enough. We need innovation on a structural level.”
Will you continue with this approach?
We would like this project to travel as a pop-up store, also asking local designers to contribute new designs, and also using leftovers that are readily available in that location.
I also see this project as a laboratory for unlimited editions, which means the starting material does not necessarily have to come from a bankruptcy, but rather be easily made. The crux is to use something existing or something easily made as the starting point for re-interpretation.
Personally delivered by Roelof
Reviver Roelof Mulder just came by with these Thirsty glasses–three different pairs of glasses each with a different graphic design–and real piercings! Just in time for tomorrow’s opening…
His starting material was 720 of these drinking glasses.
The nail art has begun!
At the moment we have five nail artists from the Le gatte personal nail school in Milan applying their trade to a new purpose–they are intricately decorating 80 chairs revived by Marian Bantjes.
Various themes are emerging–a chair with leaves and ladybugs that is asking to be put in the garden, a chair with tiny pink paw prints for animal lovers, dotted flowers and sprinkled glitter…
“For us it is a new experience to paint on such a big space. We are used to painting on nails that are especially large for our compositions, but nothing at this scale and with this shape. In a way, it has inspired us to see nail art with a different perspective,” say teachers Patrizia and Angela.
Make sure to come by to see it happen live during our event.
Live revival of lot #1512 80 folding chairs
80 Manicured chairs will be revived by Marian Bantjes during the event.
Watch nail artists bring their delicacy, precision and utmost care to a new purpose.
April 14th –18th
Wednesday – Saturday 11:00 – 21:00
Sunday 11:00 – 19:00
Q&A with Minale-Maeda
What was your initial reaction when you read the brief?
“A great concept and a business plan. And both work together.”
Here’s what Minale-Maeda chose to revive–8 of these ordinary mirrors:
Could you tell us something about how you came to your proposal?
“We asked ourselves how could we make this leftover as popular as possible?…actually pop: glamourous…sexy. Something sadly disappeared makes a comeback to center stage as object of desire: put on glorious sunglasses.”
Has the brief brought something new to your body of work?
“Usually our work is very much about material culture – researching story and meaning of things. This brief required us to be really straightforward and to ask what attractiveness is and what the most appropriate way to achieve it is.”
What is your opinion on this approach to design?
“It’s about the core values of things and it is central to our work.”
“In a way this is real limited. Hurry!”
Q&A with Stefan Sagmeister
What was your initial reaction when you read the brief?
“Loved the overall idea of the objects bought from bankrupt companies and said yes immediately.”
Could you tell us something about how you came to your proposal?
“I immediately picked the wallet. Because I am so tall myself, I like small things.
We had produced communication projects like magazine pages and a giant building wrapping with the same sentence before (Money does not make me happy). To transform a proper product utilizing it was just a natural extension. And the multiple folds of the wallet allowed for various readings of the sentence.”
Q&A with Marije Vogelzang
“I covered the spoon with different layers of silicone in various textures. In this way it seems as if the spoons are covered with cake batter. I like the possibility of silicone to make a very textured surface and play with this idea. It gives the spoons a less slick appearance. Food itself is seldom slick.”
Has the brief brought something new to your work?
“Most of the design I make is, at least partly, made of food. This design is completely non-food. It might seem a big change but in fact, dealing with silicone has a lot of similarities with cooking. It’s all about consistency, adding the right amount of hardener etc.”
What is your opinion on this approach to design?
“I am intrigued the idea that all the products that Droog bought are from bankrupt companies. I wonder where my spoons came from. To have to use these spoons as a starting-point does change your way of making a design. At least it did with me. The idea that the amount of products are dictating the number of the series is an interesting one.”
“I’m so curious about what happened to the dog baskets!”
Q&A with Atelier Ted Noten
What was your initial reaction when you read the brief?
“Actually our attention directly went to the most “stupid” objects. We questioned ourselves: is this really an object that is a leftover of an auction? It sounded a bit poor! We are looking forward to Droog’s next project when they rework expensive ‘leftovers’!”
Could you tell us something about how you came to your proposal?
“Once we accepted this idea, we felt sorry for the safety matches. Their message is so sweet, securing you to lighten up safely. How can people not fall in love with them? We thought an homage to these matches would be the best way of comforting them. Instead of changing the object we wanted to add something… like the three bronze brooches! Three stars as a symbol stands for quality, and in military terms, three stars are symbol of power and honour. Next to the three bronze stars we designed a candle in a bomb shape to play with the idea of taking risks by igniting this bomb! We would like to see lot’s of people igniting a candle in Milano! We love generals!”
(Don’t worry this will soon become clear when we show the design).
Has the brief brought something new to your body of work?
This approach of designing something for so called “leftovers” we liked very much. We had to make quick decisions because there was hardly time left and all the products had to be produced very quickly! The whole procedure was a challenge for both Droog and us! In no time we saw our product be realised! This is the way we like to work!
Q&A with Erna Einarsdóttir
What was your initial reaction when you read the brief?
“It is pretty clever to not let all these things go to waste and, coming from Iceland, I think we could have used a project like this over here. I am sure many things are getting thrown away from empty offices in Iceland.”
How did you come to your proposal?
“I was thinking about how worthless dish towels are–they are one of the few textile based items that we purposely don’t care about staining and making dirty. It’s the purpose of the towel to clean up after us in the kitchen and I never see a used towel that doesn’t have some kind of stains in it. So I thought it would be nice to make something that would make the towels more ‘worthy’, and that they would lose this ‘towel’ feeling and become something completely new.
I think most people have thrown a dish towel over their shoulders after cleaning the dishes so I felt it would be nice to keep that element. Now they can still throw the towels over their shoulders but this time they won’t feel like it´s just another worthless towel.”
Did you surprise yourself with your outcome?
“I am definitely surprised that I could take a dish towel and make something nice from it. I would never have chosen to work with it in any of my work.”
Q&A with Ed Annink
What was your initial reaction when you read the brief?
“All together we design and produce too much, and see what happens! Stuff does not reach our houses anymore, but instead they stay at dark places. No function, no fun. But yes, a story!
I was sad and happy. Sad for all the people that were fired because of bankruptcy. Happy to create ideas for ‘lost’ products to reach the people anyway.”
Could you tell us something about how you came to your proposal?
“If products, which were made for distribution, stay at economical uncomfortable dark places it feels like a ‘stuff story’. The products must come alive, they were made to function. So, I fantasized a story in which products can be used differently and get the opportunity to play its intended functional role afterwards (the user decides).”
Here’s the story Ed fantasised about the 60 sets of cutlery he revived:
Onno, Ed, Ms. Teaspoon and the King of Gold
Onno Boekhoudt (1944-2002) was an enlightened jewellery designer with a great deal of humour and fantasy. Somewhere during his career he transformed a spoon into a candle holder. Inspired by his work, I have transformed this cutlery set.
The spoon, Onno can still be used as spoon, but now and again, the spoon changes into a candle holder. You only have to buy a candle and place it.
The fork, King of Gold has received golden teeth following the mysterious King of Gold, the man whose real identity is unknown.
Ed, the knife transforms into a little mirror, only for the eyes.
And, Ms. Teaspoon, the little spoon, is totally gold layered. She will only be used as an icon of the tools we have invented and designed for function.
This set of cutlery is like a fairy tale—it can be used for the function it was made for. But is use the only reference we make things for? I vote for fantasy!
What is your opinion on this project?
“This is a very clever contribution to the current international design stress. This project is an interesting starting point to use each-others products and to create new markets, with other prices and with more diversity.”
Let’s see how Ed added fun with fantasy to 14 of these baskets, plus 60 sets of cutlery.
Q&A with Maison Martin Margiela
What was your initial reaction when you read the brief?
“Maison Martin Margiela felt completely in line with this project as our approach to design is about transformation to create a new context. Since its beginnings in 1989, Maison Martin Margiela has been gathering garments, accessories, used and sometimes new objects across the globe. That these garments and objects may be given a second life whilst respecting and maintaining the traces of the passage of time and use remains one of the keystones of the creative expression of the Maison.”
“Enjoy your drink, without a milk moustache!”… we’ll show you Maison Martin Margiela’s addition to 11 of these cups soon!