10 Years of Thomas Eyck

Zuiderzee Museum teamed up with experimental curator Jules van den Langenberg to mount a performative retrospective celebrating the 10th anniversary of exclusive contemporary Dutch design dealer Thomas Eyck. With a first showcase at Fuorisalone Milan in April and a second teaser mounted at last month’s Dutch Design Week, the exhibition extends to the Enkhuizen-based history museum. It will remain on view from 23 December 2016 to 17 May 2017. Playing off of 10 iconic product designs within Eyck’s gamut,van den Langenberg prompted 10 artists, architects and designers to create ‘active’ installations; placing these objects in new contexts or functional roles. Among the temporal works, visual artist Leon de Bruijne explored the fragility of Aldo Bakker and Frank Ottink’s tactile porcelain tablewares. In one instance, a large tire turns in a circle, leaving a trail of smashed ceramics. “My urge to test materials by slowly destroying them motivated this installation,” he explained. “Four moving installations challenge the porcelain objects, reinforce them and occasionally wreck them completely.” Only in the richly innovative and open spirit of the Netherlands would such a provocative endeavour be acceptable and for good reason. A champion of craft-led and material-oriented design, Thomas Eyck‘s highly selective eye has resulted in a growing collection of signature pieces. It’s no wonder that he would allow an artist to transmute such symbolic pieces as a  to communicate its material and conceptual rigour.

10 Years of Thomas Eyck
till 23 December
Zuiderzee Museum
Wierdijk 12 – 22, Enkhuizen, The Netherlands