Guest Editors: Lidewij Edelkoort & Philip Fimmano

On the covers:

— Erika Verzutti, Nude Slime, 2019, bronze et acrylique /bronze and acrylic, 23 x 18 x 3,5 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo / Rio de Janeiro, Brésil /Brazil
— Andile Dyalvane, iNgqweji (Nest), 2022, terracotta, cuivre /terracotta, copper . Photo Adriaan Louw
— Diana Scherer, Hyper Rhizome #5, 2020. Courtesy of the Artist
— Tomáš Gabzdil Libertíny, Hera, 2022, cire d’abeille naturelle, métal /natural beeswax métal, buste /bust, 32 x 40 x 50 mm. Photo courtesy of Studio Libertíny

__

Fragments for the Future: Archeology of the Future

To cope with the chaotic present and to consider our pummeled planet the only way forward is the way back. Back in time, back in spirit and back in conception. Futuristic scenarios lead to more energy consumption, more outer space debris and more algorithmic confusion, a world organized amongst billionaires for billionaires, while pivotal design can be excavated from the earliest of periods to lead to the latest of futures. As archaeology from the future, this movement takes us back to our origins and explores prehistoric principles burrowing ancestor aesthetics. The mainspring of being human brings another animated creative energy which is related to the discovery of pigments, the use of found materials, the invention of alloys and the making of tools of available matter such as bone, wood and stone. Earth itself is a capital source of energy and inspiration and soil will dominate the next decades in art and design. Textiles are a vibrant witness to human ingeniousness and inspiring new wovens, as well as original looms. The impulses to create are at once functional but also decorative and even buoyant at times. The wish to embellish is embedded in people’s soul and captivated in ancestry. Inspired by a long lineage of exploration, from the inception of architecture, water works, fishing and farming, a myriad of ideas are explored while researching contemporary solutions. Humankind continues to invent colours, recycle materials, hybridise ceramics, explore new fibre and originate foods and natural remedies. Without resources new sources are born. Because the human spirit is genius it is good to recall this in troubled times, when aggression and separatism, negligence and racism, as well as rampant sexism, are at risk of taking over. To understand humankind is to grasp our basic instinct for survival and creation over the barbarian practices of today, and this may help us to remain connected by our capacity for invention and improvisation.

Through the antecedents of tomorrow,  studying ancient fragments of matter and mentality, the circle feels complete as we rediscover organic shapes, robust materials and archaic art. Taking inspiration from the Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow, where the role of women and hunter gatherers is seen in fully new and more positive perspectives, we believe that the ingredients to greatness lie in our past and have enough energy to design our future – for now, replacing the dramatic present.

Exploring the origin of everything.

Once we have become ancestors ourselves, what is the world we leave behind?

Lidewij Edelkoort & Philip Fimmano, Guest Editors

__

Dance like Bees

In the conception of the origins of human evolution, archaeology is at the heart of the study of mankind and their material remains. Human beings have been building and constructing patterns of society since they came into contact with others. The foundations of the origins were based on reciprocity, interaction and the development of their potential humanity. Throughout these pages, artists, design-ers, geo-scientists, thinkers and curators express this quest for richness that has arisen from the exploration of new territories and grounds for human thought, culture and progress. Without resorting to cutting-edge technologies, the creator still reveals himself capable of innovating with what exists by exercising his power to transform matter into objects of great beauty and high added value. Situations that could weaken man are instead a source of strength and renewed creativity, ritual and social bonding. Today we feel more than vulnerable, but we are probably also more committed to transforming our ways of living and envisioning the future. By paying particular attention to ancestral construction and manufacturing methods, we are rediscovering possible ways of living differently and more sustainably. The elements offer invaluable resources: earth, water, sun, air, and we must not replace them with others. They are a source of generosity, as the creatives featured in this edition on the theme of “Origin” express so well. Our current immune deficiencies are a reflection of this lack of anchoring to our hunt-er-gatherer origins and to what our ancestors could have passed on to us but whose knowledge and beliefs have often been forgotten. There is still time to make fragility, forcefully expressed in nature and the arts, a source of human fulfillment.

Lise Coirier, Editor-in-Chief & Publisher