New Melancholy

During Dutch Design Week, the Van Abbemuseum and Home of Design Kazerne will simultaneously open an exhibition of art and design entitled New Melancholy. Plans were in place for a collaboration between the Kazerne Foundation, Van Abbemuseum and Lidewij Edelkoort (former director of Design Academy Eindhoven and internationally renowned trend forecaster), but the outbreak of COVID-19 meant that the exhibition would take on a unique character. When curating her collection of innovative contemporary design, a major consideration for Edelkoort was the essential contribution that design makes towards achieving a happy life.

THE CURRENT EMOTIONAL STATE OF THE WORLD
The exhibition combines artworks from the museum with design objects that Lidewij Edelkoort has collected during her career. Together, they reflect on what might be called the current emotional state of the world. This emotional mood is largely determined by the coronavirus pandemic but also influenced by a general state of uncertainty and threat in today’s world. The spirit or atmosphere that Lidewij Edelkoort calls The New Melancholy is represented in this exhibition.