During Dutch Design Week, e52 will be introducing you to the hidden gems of the festival. Together with Dutch Design Daily, we’ve selected nine special designers whose sparkle has caught our eye this year. Each day of DDW there’ll be a different hidden gem put under the spotlight. Today: Circus of Life (including the meet&greet at 16.00 today!)
Who Circus of Life Where Garden Mania, Strijp-S
Today’s the last DDW hidden gem. We’ve seen a lot of beautiful things this past week, from vases and lamps, to stools made out of expansion tanks, not to mention an ice cream van with polar bear, chocolate panda and meat fruit flavours. And now for something completely different. Circus of Life is all about how we deal with our own design.
Kim Hemmes and Florike Martens are the curators. Hemmes, a graduate of the Design Academy Eindhoven, explains how Circus of Life came into being: “Working on yourself can be taboo. Sometimes it’s admissible, even trendy, but it’s often associated with people in woolly socks with a chronic illness. This couldn’t be further from the truth: working on yourself, be it mentally or physically, is inspiring, fun and fascinating.”
Martens and Hemmes consider the shaping of inner life through exhibitions, readings, installations and experiences in the green Garden Mania space, where there’ll be designers, philosophers, masseurs, yogis and laughter coaches. Circus of Life brings people together to help each another discover the best version of themselves. There’ll also be a Socratic talk show, Radio René, in the spirit of the late Philosopher Laureate, René Gude, with guests including designer Jan Pieter Kaptein and product designer Jurgen Bey, DDW15 Ambassador.
Want to learn more about the design of body and mind? There’s a special e52 + DDD meet and greet in Garden Mania from 16.00 on Sunday 25 October. No need to sign up. See you then!
Text by Renske Mehra
With thanks to Katja Lucas.
