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Meet the DDW20 ambassadors

15 October 2020

Tactility by sabine Marcelis ©Pim Top
Lidewij Edelkoort, Sabine Marcelis and Sean Carney are the ambassadors of Dutch Design Week (DDW) 2020. Edelkoort has held the position of the world’s most important and leading trend forecaster for decades and she will share her ambassador title for DDW20 with designer Sabine, who took the design world by storm, and Sean who is responsible for the Healthcare Transformation Services at Philips. Coming week, they will show their perspective on design from their own background and discipline at DDW20 Virtual.
DDW Ambassador: Lidewij Edelkoort
© Gijs Kast

Lidewij Edelkoort

Lidewij Edelkoort is curator, former director of Design Academy Eindhoven (1998-2008) and one of the world's best-known trend forecasters. For DDW20, in collaboration with Charlotte Grün, she has realised a travelling library with an in-depth collection of books, the private collection of graphic designer Anthon Beeke. The aim is to see books through the eyes of a creative collector. The kick-off of this journey will take place during DDW20 in the Van Abbehuis opposite the museum, where the collection will be made accessible to the public until the end of December. The collection/exposition will then travel to libraries in the Netherlands. In addition to this library, the Van Abbemuseum and Kazerne Home of Design will host the exhibition New Melancholy. This exhibition has been curated by Lidewij with Charles Esche and shows artworks from the museum in dialogue with design objects that Lidewij has collected during her career. With New Melancholy Lidewij wants to offer new ways of thinking in dealing with design and art in times of pandemic. During DDW20, the worldwide World Hope Forum, an initiative of Lidewij, will also be launched. This will be organised by Petra Janssen at the Werkwarenhuis of Social Label in 's Hertogenbosch.

DDW Ambassador: Sabine Marcelis
© Gijs Kast

Sabine Marcelis

Sabine Marcelis, who graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2011, is a designer with a fascination for materials like marble, epoxy resin, neon and glass and for the way in which things are made. As ambassador of DDW, Sabine created a new work, a translation on how we can experience tactility into a digital experience. In collaboration with tech partners 5GHUB and Dimenco, she developed a three-dimensional digital interaction titled Tactility. Sabine also researches - in collaboration with Victor Hunt gallery- the possibilities of offering a physical art experience from a distance. The virtual DDW visitor gains control over a number of cameras placed in a remote gallery space and thus gives them the opportunity to experience Sabine's physical work from A to Z. This technique will be used on a larger scale later this year, but during DDW the first steps will be taken in this new form of art experience.

DDW Ambassador: Sean Carney
© Gijs Kast

Sean Carney

Sean Carney has great ambitions as Chief Design Officer & Head of Healthcare Transformation Services within multinational Philips and is on the brink of important developments within the healthcare industry. With an increasing and ageing population, there are countless challenges that require solutions of an entirely new calibre. In his keynote for DDW20, Sean makes a call to arms: with the world facing some of the toughest healthcare challenges of our lifetime, designers can and must step up and design with purpose. He explores three design approaches as well as shares real-life stories of how we already do this today. Sean will also announce the winners of the Student Design Challenge. In the virtual exhibition ‘Redesigning the future of healthcare’ of Philips Experience design, you’ll discover how they’re redesigning the future of healthcare and meet the designers behind it.