Visit the expo ‘Art and New Materials’ in De Domijnen
The Dutch museums are open again! This is good news, because it means that you can finally visit the Expo ‘Art and New Materials’ in De Domijnen (Sittard). The expo is curated by Leonne Cuppen, Curator of Embassy of Rethinking Plastic, and is exhibited until 19 September.
No one has been able to avoid the amount of backlash on the use of plastic as raw material. But at the same time more and more artists and designers see that we shouldn’t just throw plastic away as useless waste. That we should be especially cautious with the material, can reuse it and make beautiful things out of it. The expo shows you the endless possibilities of plastic.
Plastic as raw material
View the beautiful and colourful baskets made of old fishnets, designed by Gundega Strauberga or the special vases of cigarette filters, made by Lucas Zito. Or discover the almost philosophical work of conceptual material designer Shahar Livne. She is exhibiting her timeless hour work Deep Time and Landscapes of the Platisphere, a visualization of the cumulation of plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean.
Plastic alternatives
There are also many designers who are developing sustainable alternatives for plastic, such as materials on the basis of natural raw materials and plants or made by micro-organisms. For example Emma van der Leest. She developed a kind of bio-leather made by bacteria as residual material of the production of the fermented drink Kombucha. So, two in one. In addition to this, she developed together with Radboudumc in Nijmegen a coating on the basis of fungi to make that bio-leather water repellant and to provide it with scent and color. She already gave this product a brand name: Fungkee. A few of the new materials are displayed on a big table so that visitors can feel, touch and experience it.
Eating plastic?
The project that shows we are able to transform plastic to food might me the most striking of this exposition. How does that even work? Well, there are mealworms that eat styrofoam. We can then grind the worms to healthy and edible products for people. Studio Marc Calls this cycle of waste to delicacy the Boeteburger. In this expo you can see the worms in action wih your own eyes.
Art and New Materials is curated by Leonne Cuppen (curator Embassy of Rethinking Plastic) in collaboration with Marcel Sloots, Marlon Schellenbeek and Walter van Hulst. You can visit the exposition until 19 September in De Domijnen in Sittard.