Design education is one of the last tenets of critical approach to design, nurturing liberated exploration of different possibilities and areas of life where design can make a significant impact. Yet, some schools are better at offering possibilities for such reflective exploration than others. Perhaps one of the most ground-breaking educational institutions is Design Academy Eindhoven, which, at this year’s Salone del Mobile confirms its central position in expanding the dialogue in design practice. The protagonist of its already traditional showcase in Milan is its newly established department, Food Non Food, guided by the brilliant Marije Vogelzang.
For the exhibition, provocatively titled “Eat Shit”, Design Academy Eindhoven decided to blur the boundaries between teaching and exhibiting by transferring the entire department to Milan and fusing their activities with some of today’s most interesting practitioners. The show “delves into the politics of how, where and why we eat”, since “nothing deserves our attention more than food – it binds us, it fuels us, and the myriad of issues concerning its production, distribution and consumption touch on some of humanity’s most fundamental problems.” From a timeline documenting more than 400 projects focusing on food and feces from 1976 until now, to a project that examines waste in Khatmandu, the exhibition shows the complexity of one of the most banal, ordinary aspects of everyday life.
