After a successful first edition in January at the Passagen in Cologne – Germany's biggest design event – it is time for a second edition of Domestic Affairs, in which we rearticulated the exhibition for the Chinese context!
Domestic Affairs is part of the Re-Living the City, UABB Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture co-curated by Aaron Betsky in Shenzhen, China. It is a project by Bureau Europa, co-curated by the Institute of Relevant Studies - Agata Jaworska and Giovanni Innella - with identity design by Design Displacement Group
Domestic Affairs features the work of:
Atelier NL * Auger-Loizeau * Laura Cornet * Heather Dewey-Hagborg * Studio Droog * DUS architects * Imme van der Haak * Claire Hallewas * Ina Hollmann * Jesse Howard * Elisa van Joolen * Chris Kabel * Noortje de Keijzer * Heleen Klopper * Nicolas Maigret * Christien Meindertsma for t.e. * Metahaven * MisoSoupDesign * Alec Momont * Simone C. Niquille * Ruben Pater * PinarViola * Jan Rothuizen * Helmut Smits * Studio Swine * TD * Stefania Vulpi
We live in an era of societal super-acceleration. By consequence this manifests itself in every day life, in how we work and how we live. The technological conditions and technology as a human condition have increasingly come to determine the face and use of the domestic space, opening up a field of boundless possibilities. At the same time, we seem to be caught up in a restless dream, some sort of Orwellian state of mind, that sees us stuck in an endless sequence of interiors, where fear is a given, fragmentation drifts in the slipstream of redundant grand narratives, and a hyper mediated ‘total experience’ lures us into escapism.
In the exhibition Domestic Affairs, we try to understand the paradox of these conditions and their social, economic and political impact, by delving into the interior. The selected designers give meaning to their work beyond the mere commodity. Their practices should be understood as cultural signifiers of change: the incorporation of local materials and cultural narratives, a notion of context that empowers communities, aided by collective thinking and circular economies, co-production schemes or the establishment of parameters for open source design tools. Further blurring the boundaries of interiority, the exhibition Domestic Affairs manifests these changes as they are captured through the house and the goods and services that reach into and extended from it.
Saskia van Stein, director of Bureau Europa
The exhibition Domestic Affairs explores the house as an interface to our social, economic and political lives. In our struggle to balance privacy and popularity, trust and distrust, engagement and retreat, the house becomes a filter for our societal relations, manifesting the attitude we have towards our local and global neighbours. More than bricks and mortar, a financial asset, or a set of appliances and technologies, home is a state of mind.
Domestic Affairs is a project by Bureau Europa curated by the Institute of Relevant Studies (Agata Jaworska and Giovanni Innella), with visual identity design by Design Displacement Group.
Domestic Affairs is generously supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL
Date:
4 December 2015 till 28 February 2016 (opening on 4 December)
Opening hours: Tuesday - Thursday: 11:00 – 18:00 and Friday - Sunday: 11:00 – 20:00. The Biennale is closed for Chinese New Year: 7 -13 February.
The exhibition
The exhibition, photos Lard Buurman
Domestic Affairs: the newspaper
