A touch of Green

date:  15 - 20 April 2008
location:  Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, Milan

In the footsteps of scientific researchers and opinion leaders, designers and manufacturers are also claiming sustainability. Droog has always focused on the mental or human side of product design, but there’s more. The presentation in Milan wants to inspire by providing sustainability from all kinds of angles. It will not be about pointing out an absolute answer.

What is perfect sustainability? Droog does not pretend to have found the key. We all know that it is a complex issue and to do right on the one hand, often means harmful consequences on the other. Like bio-fuel, which seems good for the environment but turns out to be devastating for food supplies. An awareness of the problem and its dualities has risen and its dynamics are the same in the field of design. Does it help the environment to recycle a one day gathering of paper waste from the office into a resin treated piece of furniture? Maybe not literally, but the intention to limit waste is at least one step in the right direction.

The selection of designers who are presenting their work at Droog in Milan, each in their own way have reacted to ‘going green’: in classic shapes and with energy saving production techniques, such as the low-fire point porcelain by Minale-Maeda, by only heating SMAQ’s cosy chair, instead of heating the entire room and with Christien Meindertsma’s knitting work proving that industrial production does not exclude the strength of handicraft.

The relationship between people and products is almost like a ceremonial experience.  Martino d’Esposito wants us to sign a contract, saying we won’t even try to get rid of our table. Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin thought of it as a perpetuated ritual, honoring the substance of things with a concrete and porcelain monument. It’s also a world of contradictions, with ugly pallets becoming the basic idea of beauty behind Gaële Girault’s interior objects and with discarded materials plaited in Martín Azúa’s fence making a scenery to enjoy.

Exhibition design by Marcel Schmalgemeijer.

A touch of Green could also be seen at Droog Amsterdam (May 29th – July 13th 2008). Also see the show on Youtube.

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