NY400 Pioneers of Change

Upon request of the Ministries of Foreign And Economic Affairs, Droog Design was in charge of the programming of design, fashion and architecture during NY400. The activities were organised in and around 11 historical officers’ residencies in Nolan Park, which were transformed by designers, artists and architects in collaboration win New Yorkers.

Pioneers of Change, curated by Renny Ramakers, director of Droog Design, encourages a more responsible and sustainable approach to the way we live. The event focuses on qualities that are hard to come by nowadays, such as space, fresh air, respect, care, silence, slowness and time. The multidisciplinairy programme contains a.o.:

• The Boombench by NL Architects allows visitors to listen to their own music via Bluetooth, with the bench functioning as a ghettoblaster.
• In Maarten Baas’s Grandfather’s Clock it seems as if a human hand moves the dials, minute after minute.
• The fashion collective Painted combines Dutch lace making with American Indian beadwork. Through a collaboration with the Parsons New School of Design, they literally rekindle old connections.

One room of an Officers House presented the first edition of Dutch Profiles, a series of short documentaries about architects, graphic, product and fashion designers in the Netherlands. Dutch Profiles focuses on the conceptual and research-based background of well-known icons of Dutch design and includes interviews with, among others, MVRDV, 2012Architects, Jurgen Bey, Claudy Jongstra and Alexander van Slobbe. DutchDFA will add up to 100 profiles over the coming years. Dutch Profiles is produced by Submarine, an Amsterdam based cross-media production company, that takes a critical, dynamic and often playful look at present-day society.

The Cooper Hewitt Museum organised two debates named Open Talks around the themes of New Luxury (in the light of the economic recession) and New Collaborations (between design professionals and amateurs). Speakers were: Marije Vogelzang, Maarten Baas, 2012 Architecten, Jurgen Bey, Saskia van Drimmelen and Joanna van der Zanden.

The aim was not only to reach a wide audience (which definitely happened, with 25,000 visitors and a lot of media attention), but to also engage in long-term collaborations with it. With its multi-disciplinary content Pioneers of Change encourages a cross-sectoral approach.