September
21, 2006 - January 14, 2007
Simply
Droog: 10+ 3 Years of Creating Innovation and Discussion, Surveys
the Projects and Designs of this Groundbreaking Dutch Collective,
sole North American exhibition at Museum of Arts & Design
in New York
For over
a decade, the Droog Design collective has set forth innovative
and inspired designs for everyday objects using low-cost, industrial,
or recycled materials. Comprising more than 160 iconic designs,
simply droog, 10 + 3 years of creating innovation and discussion
reveals the playfulness, significance, humor, and social meaning
imbued in the work of this international design platform.
The exhibition,
which has toured throughout Europe and South America since its
Munich premiere in 2004, will make its sole North American presentation
at the Museum of Arts & Design from September 21, 2006,
through January 14, 2007. This presentation will feature products
and prototypes created by Droog from its founding in 1993 through
2005, with a significant number of new designs seen in the United
States for the first time.
“Our
Museum explores the materials and creative processes of contemporary
artists, and Droog celebrates this intersection from a unique
design perspective,” said Holly Hotchner, director, Museum
of Arts & Design. “Droog considers process as both
a physical and conceptual action, and embraces those materials
that we as a society often overlook or discard. simply droog
is a testament to how the everyday can be rearranged into a
finished, enlightened form.”
Droog Design
was established in the Netherlands in 1993 by designer Gijs
Bakker and art historian Renny Ramakers as a platform for contemporary
Dutch design. Under the guidance of Bakker and Ramakers, Droog
soon expanded its scope to embrace the work of an international
network of contemporary designers. The Dutch word for “dry,”
as in “dry wit,” and unadorned or simple, droog
refers both to the wry sense of humor that characterizes the
designs and to the practicality and simplicity of their objects.
In order to be considered a Droog Design, the object must embody
an original idea, a clear concept, and a practical and simple
end product. In addition, Droog objects often offer both political
and social commentary, both in the designs themselves and the
processes through which they are created.
“Droog
is not a style; it is a mentality and an approach to the creative
process. If a design engages and examines existing materials
with the goal of creating a practical, simple object—and
if the creative concept is both revelatory and inspirational—we
can then call that object ‘Droog,’” said Ramakers,
director of Droog Design. “A Droog object may be witty
or politically subversive or neither, and yet the process of
creating a Droog design never ceases to offer sharp commentary
on how humans interact with each other and our environment.”
The
Exhibition
Organized
by Droog with exhibition design by Studio Jurgen Bey, simply
droog reflects the collective’s design philosophy and
belief in reuse and recycling. A section dedicated to chronicling
the history of Droog’s projects and commissions will include
photographs, videos, drawings, models, prototypes, and finished
products, all of which are mounted and displayed on the crates
in which they were shipped. The rest of the exhibition will
integrate the designs thematically into eight different interior
settings. Grey tape and black rubber silhouettes on the gallery
floor replicate Dutch floor plans, including a summer house
and a student residence, throughout which Droog furniture and
objects are arranged and coupled with fictional inhabitants.
Themes explored in this part of the exhibition include:
1. Use
It Again, presenting objects that propose a second life
for worn-out, unfashionable products;
2. Familiar – Not So Familiar, including common
everyday objects in new contexts and functions, forcing a
reconsideration of existing decorative practice;
3. Open Design, examining the relationship between
people and objects through products that require human interaction
in order to function;
4. Inevitable Ornament, exploring the inevitability
of decoration as a consequence of the creative process;
5. Simplicity, displaying objects that are simple
in both construction and use without being austere;
6. Irony, including Droog objects that offer both
subtle and overt political and social commentary;
7. Experience, featuring objects that engage and
involve the viewer in an unforgettable encounter;
8. Form Follows Process, studying objects whose productions
result from a series of conditions instead of active choices.
Highlights
of the exhibition include such seminal objects as Tejo Remy’s
Rag Chair (1991), a chair made from used fabrics strapped together;
Jurgen Bey’s Treetrunk bench (1999), in which bronze-cast
chairbacks are inserted into a freshly cut tree trunk laid on
its side; and Rody Graumans’ Chandelier “85 Lamps”
(1993), a knotted bundle of eighty-five light bulbs suspended
from the ceiling. Among the new products included in simply
droog, 10 + 3 are Chris Kabel’s Parasol ‘Shady Lace’
(2004), a large parasol whose fabric design casts shadows of
leaves and branches, and FRONT’s Wallpaper designed by
Animals (2004), where intriguing and visually compelling wallpaper
designs were created by rats, who gnawed holes and chewed unexpected
patterns into the material.
simply
droog, 10 + 3 years of creating innovation and discussion
is realized at the Museum of Arts & Design with financial
support from the Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam.
Catalogue
A 311-page, soft-cover catalogue will accompany the
exhibition with text in English. Titled simply droog, 10 + 3
years of creating innovation and discussion, the catalogue is
edited by Renny Ramakers and Anneke Moors (updated 2006) and
includes contributions by Aaron Betsky, Ole Bouman, Ed van Hinte,
Ellen Lupton, Louise Schouwenberg, Marieke Sonneveld, Jaako
van ‘t Spijker, and Gareth Williams.
Museum
of Arts & Design (MAD)
The
Museum of Arts & Design is the country’s leading cultural
institution dedicated to the collection and exhibition of contemporary
objects created in a wide range of media, including clay, glass,
wood, metal, and fiber. The Museum celebrates materials and
processes that are embraced by practitioners in the fields of
craft, decorative arts, and design. MAD’s distinguished
permanent collection includes more than 2,000 objects by renowned
artists and designers from around the world, representing many
forms of creative expression and technical mastery. The Museum
will move to a new 54,000 square-foot building at Two Columbus
Circle in Manhattan in 2008. In its new home, designed by Brad
Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture in collaboration with
Handel & Associates, the Museum will be able to display
works from its permanent collection in dedicated collection
galleries for the first time in its history.
###
Contact:
Patrick Keeffe
Public Relations
Museum of Arts & Design
40 West 53rd Street
New York, NY 10019
Tel.: 212-956-3535 x.113
patrick.keeffe@madmuseum.org
www.madmuseum.org
or
Juliet Sorce
/ Joseph Ackley
Resnicow Schroeder Associates
Tel.: 212-671-5158 / 5154
jsorce@resnicowschroeder.com
jackley@resnicowschroeder.com
www.resnicowschroeder.com
