ARTISTS TALKS

Basse Stittgen

‘Blood Related’ by Basse Stittgen investigates the mostly untold cow blood narrative. A by-product and waste stream of the slaughterhouse industry, one of the most resource-intensive.

Idalene Rapp & Natascha Unger

The installation ‘Stone Web’ by Idalene Rapp and Natascha Unger shows the outcome of the basalt potentiality for spatial change.

Kirsten Hermans

’Moving Light’ by Kirsten Hermans explores reducing the need for the ecological impact of buildings. With materials that preserve the sensory and atmospheric aspect of natural light itself.

Tim van der Loo

‘New Blue’ by Tim van der Loo rationalizes experimental textile post-manufacturing, manual recycling processes, and continuous alternative material flows out of old denim.

ALL GOOD(S) AT GR_UND

What do we make of the role of contemporary design in the climate breakdown era?

As extractive systems, created by some humans, are responsible for exponentially increasing the amount of materials exploited on a planetary scale—carelessly consuming more than 100 billion tons a year, as resource reuse is declining. We need to quickly bring into discussion how to apply modes and methodologies to shift into sustainable and circular practices effectively. To radically reduce the impact of the prevailing material and manufacturing culture, while simultaneously recognizing the importance of multi-species entanglement.

We live in a historical time where we encounter the limits of growth. Reform needs to accelerate for the sake of futurity. Through transformative approaches that deal with an increasing geopolitical sense of ecological urgency, design is no longer a form of styling. Paying equal regard by creative imagination to social injustice and the modern commodification of nature—subsequently creating innovative learning landscapes.

Sustainability shouldn‘t be about sustaining the present conditions, rather improving and moving beyond them.

The All Good(s) program, set up by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Berlin, shows the possibilities that ‘new materials’ offer—in terms of raw materials, techniques and applications—to make a sustainable and circular future possible. Both Germany and the Netherlands face similar challenges, namely the transition to a fully circular economy in 2050. The current pandemic shows the vulnerability of global production chains and material flows and thus the need for the reuse of materials or the development of new materials under circular design principles.

Offering a stage for emerging and established change-makers, researchers and designers to exchange ideas and visions. Amidst this exhibition within the walls of Gr_und, we show practical applications and experimental investigations into a necessary societal change—from failing traditions.

ORGANIZED BY

Valerie-Anne Houppermans, Gijs Könings and Laureline van den Heuvel Co-curator: Sebastian Guzman Olmos

@nlkultur // @s.guzmanolmos // @gr_und

SUPPORTERS

This project is made possible thanks to the support from The Embassy of the Netherlands in Berlin.

Visual identity by Lizzy Onck