21_21 DESIGN SIGHT

Under the direction of Li Edelkoort, a world leading trend forecaster who figures out the transition in values and aesthetics by carefully observing and analyzing the society and economy. Heading towards a "Post Fossil Era" (after the fossil fuel era), the exhibition introduced a new generation of creators who had adopted new methods using natural materials and primitive forms, while turning back to the fundamental process of making things.
Date: April 24 - June 27, 2010

Time has come for extreme change.

Society is ready to break away from last century for good.
To break from creative conventions, theoretic rules and stigmas that now are questioned, challenged and abandoned. To break with a materialistic mentality, replacing it with the modest materialization of earth-bound and recomposed matter.

In the aftermath of the worst financial crisis in decades, a period of glamorous and streamlined design for design!s sake comes to an end. A new generation of designers and architects retrace their roots, refine their earth and research their history, sometimes going back to the beginning of time.

In this process, they formulate design around natural and sustainable materials, favoring timber, hide, pulp, fiber, earth and fire; like contemporary cavemen, they reinvent shelter, redesign tools and manmade machines, and conceptualize archaic rituals for a more modest, content and contained lifestyle.

Like a Fred and Wilma Flintstone of the future.

Li Edelkoort