Breaking Boundaries: The Graduation Show 2023 Opens
Located in the heart of Eindhoven’s bustling retail district, this unexpected setup provides an exceptional entry point for Dutch Design Week attendees to interact with 220 remarkable graduation projects.
Before opening to the public, Design Academy Eindhoven’s Creative Director, Joseph Grima, and Educational Director, Raf De Keninck, expressed their gratitude to the Eindhoven municipality and Heuvel for their warm welcome. They also acknowledged the exceptional works of this year’s graduates as they prepare to step into the professional and public world of design. Additionally, the graduation identity, signage, and catalog were presented by the alumni collective, whywhynot, shedding light on the significance of community and interconnectedness.
The ceremony continued with the recognition of the winners of the Gijs Bakker Award, Melkweg Award, and René Smeets Award. Tin received the Gijs Bakker Award for his project “Cholonizatión,” a profound exploration of decolonising practices in South America. Lotte Wigman was honoured with the René Smeets Award for her project “Negotiating Boundaries: Designing for the Symbiocene.” an innovative take on sustainable design embracing cohabitation with marine organisms. The Melkweg Award recognised Ralf Gouldemans for his project “Transcending: Mesh to Matter,” exploring the potential of digital technology in physical craftsmanship. These projects collectively address pressing issues such as confronting colonisation, adapting digital tools for craftsmanship, and tackling environmental degradation, reflecting the profound challenges faced by today’s designers.
The Graduation Show boldly engages in conversations about contemporary society. It prompts attendees to interact with beautiful yet critical design, juxtaposing these in-depth projects against the consumer-driven culture of the Heuvel shopping centre.
“Design is not just an object on a pedestal,” emphasised curators Nadine Botha and Martina Muzi during their opening speech. This year, the show celebrates the idea that some design works demand a different kind of engagement than the traditional gallery space approach used in previous years. Collaborating with the centre’s architecture has allowed for the creation of focused spaces that encourage interaction with the public, discussions, moments of silence, and intimacy. The curatorial concept of ‘proximity’ shapes the combinations of projects, grouping them to complement each other, stimulate conversations, and provide pathways for attendees to engage with a wide range of design formats.
For the first time, the show introduces three new types of spaces to acknowledge that design goes beyond traditional exhibition settings. These new spaces include a bookshop where graduates can sell their theses and process books, a workshop area where the general public can interact with durational, educational, and performative design works (even without Dutch Design Week wristbands), and a cinema for works that experiment, challenge boundaries, and explore screen and digital media.
In a time marked by societal dissonance, environmental challenges, and geopolitical unrest, the Graduation Show serves as a navigator for finding one’s place in contemporary culture, both within and beyond the design bubble.
