Recycling is a contemporary code word people often use when talking about responsible, conscious production. At its Milan design forum on Wednesday 22 April, Premsela, Dutch Platform for Design and Fashion, will focus attention on an all-but-forgotten alternative path to reuse: repairing broken and damaged items.
Renowned speakers including Piet Hein Eek (designer), Corinne Poux- Bernard (Director of Innovations, Hermès), Satyendra Pakhale (cultural nomad) and Joanna van der Zanden (Artistic Director, Platform21), led by moderator Marco Bevolo (independent author), will share their views on the value of repair in the context of the global economic crisis.
The Premsela Design Forum will be introduced by the Dutch Minister of Culture, Ronald Plasterk.
Repairing is environmentally friendly, but it also changes the relationship between object and user from superficial to enduring and unique. To repair is to restore and renew. When a missing or broken part is replaced, a product's character can change radically. Countless repair manuals and links to repair sites can be found on Planet Green and YouTube. At the Premsela Design Forum, the point of departure will be the cultural and social aspects of repair.
Stop Recycling. Start Repairing.
"Make your products live longer! Repairing means taking the opportunity to give your product a second life. Don't ditch it, stitch it! Don't end it, mend it! Repairing is not anti-consumption. It is anti-needlessly throwing things away."
This is the first line of the Repair Manifesto written by the Amsterdam design centre Platform21 for its project Platform21 = Repairing. The manifesto has been disseminated and picked up by weblogs, designers and consumer programmes. In addition, 20,000 copies will be distributed during 2009 Milan Design Week. Through an exhibition, workshops, lectures, repair clinics and a competition, Platform21 = Repairing investigates how repairing can become a contemporary activity again. The project runs through 30 August 2009. Platform21 is an initiative of Premsela and ING Real Estate.
Premsela Design Forum on Repairing
Wednesday 22 April 2009
Romeo Gigli CafeVia Angelo Fumagalli 6, Milan
(metro: M2, stop: Porta Genova / tram 2 / bus 74)
Doors: 6.30pm
Discussion: 7.00pm (preceded by an introduction by Dutch Minister of Culture Ronald Plasterk)
Cocktails: 8.30-10.00pm
Free admission
Photo: Thonet-stoel repaired by Harco Rutgers. Photograph by Leo Veger