Art and design benefit from strong ideas, layered meaning, and a wealth of references. The carriers of these ideas and references incorporate contradictory characteristics. Their materiality is both instrumental and autonomous. Their mass, volume, and texture each mediate meaning and likewise impose their imperative presence. Art and design are simultaneously reality and illusion, tangible and fleeting. Curiously, the intimate interweaving of meaning and materialisation came to be discredited in the second half of the twentieth century. The Material Utopias Temporary Program (2013-15) endeavours to end this tradition by celebrating the materiality of objects and embracing the innovative power of the creative artistic process.

Team

Louise Schouwenberg (Director)
Judith Konz (Coordinator)

Participants

Marijke Annema
Daniel van Dijck
Nandi Enthoven
Laura FĂĽgmann
Robert Grundström
Vincent Knopper
Sarah Meyers
Tjalling Mulder
Ea Polman
Alice Ronchi
Michelly Sugui
Nadine van Veldhuizen
Robin de Vogel