IT’S OUR F***ING BACKYARD

Yamuna Forzani, Iris van Herpen

IT’S OUR F***ING BACKYARD
Designing Material Futures

Exhibition — 26 May until 4 Sep 2022
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

The Stedelijk spotlights the greatest challenge of our time: the climate crisis. The exhibition It’s Our F***ing Backyard shows that designers can make a compelling difference: through innovative experiments or by drawing on ‘forgotten’ knowledge, they invite us to look at materials in a radically new way and offer us design that is both responsible and aesthetic, comfortable and accessible. Eighty selected projects by designers and companies from all over the world shed light on an array of strategies that explore innovative uses of materials. The exhibition also looks at how soil depletion relates to practices of colonialism, which are still continued by some multinationals.

ALGAE AND COW'S BLOOD

Claudy Jongstra

Designers recycle all kinds of waste materials for new products and use the power of nature to create unusual materials. Design studio Bentu, for example, produces furniture from ceramic waste, Tamara Orjola manufactures textiles from pine needles and Basse Stittgen came up with tableware made of cow’s blood. The innovations range from experimental research to new applications of ancient craft techniques. Claudy Jongstra introduced medieval natural dye recipes into Viktor & Rolf’s fashion designs, and Seok-hyeon Yoon used the traditional ottchill lacquer technique to make recyclable ceramics. Maartje Dros and Erik Klarenbeek experiment with diatoms (micro-algae), which bind CO2, to make glass. Other projects focus on generating energy in ways that are less harsh on the environment, or forgo the addition of material by switching to a loan economy. Other initiatives focus on tempting users into think differently. All the projects on display give new impetus to the industry and make us more aware of our footprint.

DESIGNERS, PRODUCERS AND NEW ACQUISITIONS

The exhibition showcases experiments and prototypes as well as products already on the market. It includes work by Fernando Laposse, FormaFantasma, Christien Meindertsma, Shahar Livne, Donghoon Sohn, Alexandra Kehayoglou, and by manufacturers such as Vitra and Ikea. Designers are also forging new alliances. For example, together with DJ Peggy Gou, the Balinese design studio Space Available designed a chair from 20 kilos of plastic waste collected in Indonesia.

Tjeerd Veenhoven

It's Our F***ing Backyard shows works by

Alexandra Kehayoglou

Adidas, Adjaye Associates (Sir David Adjaye OBE), Belén (Brecht Duijf en Lenneke Langenhuijsen), Bentu, Biotrem, Circuform / Ineke Hans, Claudy Jongstra / Viktor & Rolf, Crafting Plastics Studio (Vlasta Kubušová en Miroslav Král), DRIFT (Lonneke Gordijn en Ralph Nauta), ecoBirdy (Joris Vanbriel en Vanessa Yuan), Fairphone / Bas van Abel, FormaFantasma / Dzek (FormaFantasma: Andrea Trimarchi en Simone Farresin), Ikea, Jacob de Baan en Tejo Remy, Krill Design, LENA Library (Elisa Jansen en Diana Jansen), Luis Fernando Barrios, Rafael Sánchez Brizuela Ochoa, Viridiana Palma Dominguez, Aniela Mayte Guerrero Hernández, Oscar Andrés Méndez Hernández, Naoto Ricardo Kobayashi Utsumoto. (Ontwerpers van the Solar Project onder leiding van Moisés Hernández) Mameluca Studio (Alessandra Clark en Nuno FS), Myenergyskin by EigenEnergie.net / Kiki & Joost (Kiki van Eijk en Joost van Bleiswijk), Ocean Bottle / K8 Design, Reef Design Lab Studio / Sydney Institute of Marine Science (Reef Design Lab Studio: Alex Goad), Shahar Livne / Balenciaga, Space Available / Peggy Gou, (Studio) Bart Vernooij (Bart Vernooij), Studio CTT (Carissa ten Tije), Studio Ekaterina Semenova (Ekaterina Semenova), Studio Klarenbeek & Dros (Maartje Dros en Eric Klarenbeek), Studio Seungbin Yang (Seungbin Yang), Studio Thomas Vailly (Thomas Vailly), Studio Tinus (Martijn Straatman), Studio Yoon Seok-hyeon (Yoon Seok-hyeon), The Ocean Cleanup / Yves Béhar, The Slum Studio (Sel Kofiga), Van.Eko / NPSP BV / HeijltjesAkkaya, Vepa / Plastic Whale / LAMA Concept (Yvonne Laurysen en Erik Mantel), Vitra / Barber Osgerby (Barber Osgerby: Edward Barber en Jay Osgerby), WNDR (Matt Sterbenz)

The Slum Studio

And by the following designers Kosuke Araki, Marjan van Aubel, Aldo Bakker, Simón Ballen Botero, Yasmin Bawa, Cheick Diallo, Teresa van Dongen, Anne Fischer, Yamuna Forzani, Ting Gong, Iris van Herpen, Sae Honda, Elisa van Joolen, Alexandra Kehayoglou, Dirk van der Kooij, Agne Kucerenkaite, Don Yaw Kwaning, Janne Kyttanen, Joris Laarman, Roxane Lahidji, Fernando Laposse, Audrey Large, Savvas Laz, WooJai Lee, Mae-ling Lokko, Christien Meindertsma, Stine Mikkelsen, Tamara Orjola, Leo Orta, Océane Romanet, Diana Scherer, Joana Schneider, Yuiko Shigeta, Donghoon Sohn, Basse Stittgen, Tjeerd Veenhoven

www.stedelijk.nl

Ting Gong

Elisa van Joolen