Thing Nothing

During Dutch Design Week (17 - 25 October), the Van Abbemuseum and Design Academy organise the exhibitionThing Nothing. Thing Nothing is on view in the museum until 15 November 2015.

In Thing Nothing Design Academy Eindhoven and the Van Abbemuseum research the meaning, value and future of things. The exhibition addresses the relation between form and counter-form, between the real and the virtual, between technological possibilities and moral issues.

The exhibition looks at the way design, in dealing with actual materials, shapes and production processes, can also script the intangible qualities of the material world. Over the years, the academy has encouraged students to look beyond the material properties of things, and to search for a presence that Taoists might describe as ‘nothingness’: the space in and around the object. As virtual space becomes an integral part of our daily environment, designers venture more and more into this world of the unseen, the unspoken, the unmade.

Participating designers / artists

APT artist Julijonas Urbonas, Auger & Loizeau, Mark Bain, Aldo Bakker, James Bridle, Heath Bunting, Committee, Alison Crank, Edith Dekyndt, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Portable Palace, Jalila Essaïdi, Studio Drift, Dunne & Raby, Alix Gallet, Imme van der Haak, Olivier van Herpt & Sander Wassink, Hannah Hiecke, Niels Hoebers, HRL Laboratories, Floris Kaayk, Chris Kabel, Marlies Kolodziey, Guillemette Legrand & Eva Jaeger, Lucas Maassen, Metahaven, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Atelier Montè, MVRDV, Bastiaan de Nennie, Ted Noten, Emilie Pallard & Niels Heymans, Keramiekmuseum Princessehof, Unknown Fields Division,  Ai WeiWei, The Why-Factory, Jólan van der Wiel, Atelier Yuri Veerman, Giuditta Vendrame,  Jetske Visser, Y.Lo, Hongjie Yang.