it’s almost 4 am. I am tired but thrilled. we just have 15h left to the opening of our exhibition and I still need some sleep.

I will represent the artist and his work now:

it´s the act which characterises the appearance of karsten födinger´s work. the traces and energies of simple actions are embedded in the artifact. working with simple building material, it is not his intention to create a beautiful artwork, or to confront the viewer with conceptual truths. but there is an elegancy in the elementariness of his works, that maybe wasn´t intended by the artist, but by the act, the material and the moment.

I am excited. I will have the first exhibition in my apartment. my flatmate, miriam hartwig and me – ‘luxe paarden in actie’ , invited an artist to work at our domicile. karsten födinger is from karlsruhe, germany where he is studying fine arts. he is living, eating and working with us. we present his first single exhibition on thursday at 7 pm. so more to come… watch out!

karsten födinger – when he started to pull down our wall paper

our livingroom – yesterday

my office – protected from the dust of the plaster

one of the works (almost done) in the kitchen

the invitation

dan perjovschi is another example for my obsession of black and white drawings. I saw his work in the van abbemuseum last week. and I fall in love again. he is the one who is allowed to make mistakes in the spelling (I hope people let me do mine too) and who is presenting skeptical commentary on global incidents.

when you are a kid they don’t let you to mess with the wall. it’s wrong. but everbody wants dan to draw on the wall. he says that he doesn’t have strikt plans when he starts. it’s risksy and exciting. and often he feels under pressure. his results are at once hilarious and subversive.

one of his books

van abbe museum eindhoven

| dan perjovschi | – great example of his work – chalk on concrete wall

eindhoven – the city which wants to become THE design city in the netherlands. why not? maybe because, in my opinion, eindhoven is the worst city in the netherlands. but on the other hand the whole city, including the mayor, wants to hit this target. they have the world wide known design academy (a propaganda machine for themself – damn, they are good), the dutch design week (the arena of dutch design) and since last year the designhuis (another promoter of dutch design – especially for the protégés from the design academy). we should start to admit that they are on a good way.

eduard sweep, yksi shop – dutch design to buy
jeanne van beers, general manager designhuis
telling the designhuis story
(sorry for the pic, eduard and jeanne. I like it – it’s spontaneous)

frank tjepkema – xxl chair – living – 1996
as the proportions of people evolve to the standards of western consumerism so may the proportions of objects that surround us, this project is a preview. he designed this chair with super size aesthetics in mind

willem derks – my archetypes – well being -2000
household electronics brought back to their most basic forms. the purity of form emphasises the functionality of the design

maarten baas – clay furniture – activity – 2002
clay furniture address the issue of form-giving in industrial design, revealing, literally, the designer’s ‘hand’ in this intimate process, today normally concealed through the use of a computer (but there, none-the-less)

lotty lindeman – ontspruiten – living – 2006
a mobile mechanical daybed which can fold and unfold and change function in a slow mechanical motion

cris bartels – skininterior – identity – 2007
observation of skinny models on the runway, so fragile the garments define them instead of the other way around, resulted in nine filmsy looking yet strong stools

I have been asked why I don’t show what I did with the amazing tie wraps. so here we go: (the pictures are from my old portfolio)

matylda krzykowski | chair – ‘one material’ 2006

matylda kryzkowski | collar – ‘transparency’ 2007

last year eduard sweep gave us the assignment to design a chair from one material. I used rubber foam and tie wraps. and because I go in for tie wraps I used them also for the transparent collar for frans megens. when you use so many tie wraps your hands are hurting – almost bleeding. I guess the human body is able to use 20 of them a day. not more. my total respect to the students who were part of the project in the pinakothek der moderne.