Eighty suggestions for a better world

Under the leadership of the new director Rein Wolfs, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam has grown over the past two years into an institution that eagerly communicates how politically correct it is. The museum supported protests against Zwarte Piet, it condemned the war in Ukraine, it repeatedly openly committed itself to the fight against racism. In a major exhibition one and a half years ago, the Stedelijk held the German painters Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Emil Nolde personally accountable for the violent and colonial nature of the time in which they lived long after their deaths: wrong artists!

It is therefore not surprising that the Stedelijk is now presenting a design exhibition about the climate crisis: It’s Our F***ing Backyard. Designing material futures† An exhibition that emphasizes alternative, less harmful material choices. Eighty designs have been selected for this. From designers who are concerned with reuse, with the development of sustainable materials, with techniques that have become obsolete, or with the promotion of environmental awareness.

For example, a stool made of horse manure and a lamp made of orange peels can be seen. Two types of disposable tableware, one from food scraps, another from pressed wheat bran. A surfboard made of flax (instead of toxic fiberglass and synthetic resins), a rug made of pine needles and seats made of mussel granulate.

Also read: The exotic gaze of the German expressionists Kirchner and Nolde

Return transports

But also: a digital platform that provides information about contaminated plots of land in France. A multi-sensory installation made from the blood of slaughtered cows, to create awareness about the slaughter industry. And a piece of clothing, the buyer of which has to write a letter to the maker every year, for twenty years, so that he gains knowledge, according to the explanation, “about the way people live”.

The Stedelijk has worked on its ecological footprint for the exhibition. The eighty suggestions for a better world are presented in a beautiful exhibition design made by the Eindhoven agency Envisions, for which only recycled or recyclable materials have been used. In addition, the museum bought some designs, director Wolfs said at the opening, so that no return transport is necessary afterwards.

Anyone who has visited the graduation exhibitions of the Design Academy Eindhoven in recent years will know that the young international design vanguard has been engaged in experimental materials research for years. For example, so many designers have started working with ocean plastic that you can put together half a household item with products made from recycled fishing nets and plastic bottles fished from the sea. The Stedelijk is now adding fossil-like jewelry designed for the luxury fashion house Balenciaga. In the meantime, every minute a garbage truck full of plastic still disappears into the world’s seas, about 14 billion kilos per year.

without obligation

There is something sympathetic about the student presentations in Eindhoven, although it is rare that you hear about their designs afterwards. You can expect more from a museum. What do the responsible curators have in mind with this exhibition about our endangered backyard? What insight do they offer the visitor?

As with previous expressions of social commitment by the Stedelijk, the climate exhibition has something non-committal. After the Russian invasion, putting up a blue-and-yellow flag on the facade and hanging a number of photos by the Ukrainian artist Boris Mikhailov in the stairwell of the museum for a few weeks is like playing nice weather. Why not try to provide insight into Ukrainian visual art unknown to us, if necessary with a digital exhibition? That would have been a lot more interesting than such a no-holds-barred expression of compassion.

It’s Our F***ing Backyard mainly raises questions. We are amazed at a two meters high, whimsically shaped green object. A wall text makes it clear that it is a lamp designed by Sav-vas Laz, made of polystyrene foam packaging from waste containers. The intention of the Greek designer with his ‘Thrashformer’: “Making people aware of packaging waste.”

peaceful protest

A glossy lacquered mushroom-shaped wooden stool by Aldo Bakker states that the design is “a silent, peaceful protest against consumerism and short-term gratification”. With this stool, which is for sale at art fairs for 25,000 euros, the designer aims, according to the museum, “to create products that have an endless shelf life and that refer to eternal life, while advocating preservation as the way forward. for consumerism”. The real world and the dreamed-up climate-neutral world seem very far away here.

In more ways, the exhibition gives the impression of gallery play with social engagement. Compost can be made from horse manure and orange peels. What are the consequences if we make plate material from figs and light bulbs from peeling? As a visitor you can only guess.

There is a screen in the exhibition where the two curators in charge come into the picture and give statements. The presented designs cry out for scientific substantiation, for explanations by ecologists and climate scientists.

More museums are paying attention to environmental issues. In April, for example, a major exhibition about the harmful consequences of our plastic addiction opened in the German Vitra Museum. With a clear and scientifically sound catalogue, the exhibition feels less complacent and a lot more urgent. It’s Our F***ing Back yard is a missed opportunity for a meaningful statement.