Eindhoven, March 2010 – At this year’s Salone Internazionale del Mobile (14 to 19 April, 2010, Milan, Italy) designer Doreen Westphal will invite visitors to think about the changes we like to make to the world we live in, changes which might create a new one. What is good that we should keep? What is not worth taking along to the new world? What should we leave behind and just fossilize?
In Milan, Doreen Westphal has set up a station for distinguishing between these elements of the everyday. In the middle of the space, a large domestic fish tank will be placed. Underneath the fish tank is a basin full of objects so that visitors can either bring their own items for fossilization or can choose one there and then. The visitor climbs up some stairs to place the object (for example a doll which might represent a banker) in the fish tank. Then, together, the visitor and designer prepare the concrete using a domestic kitchen mixer and place a layer of concrete over the item. Day by day archaeological layers representing parts of our current life will be built up.
Fossilize, Westphal’s latest work in concrete, presents her chosen medium as a new base material for ceramic products, using 50 times less energy than conventional ceramics. Concrete may not look or feel green, but its sustainable potential is enormous. Covering our current reality, Fossilize creates a firm foundation for a new approach to sustainability. Westphal created several items such as Concrete Mug, Concrete Lace, Concrete Crochet Tiles and for Dutch design label Zuiver she designed Concrete Vase.
Fossilize is part of the Tuttobene Group Exhibition at Via Savona 18, Milano.
