You know them, those types who graduate cum laude from the Design Academy, print 3D bridges, have their work in the collections of museums such as the MoMA and Center Pompidou, and then also design innovation awards that are then cheerfully with the likes of Angelina Jolie and Miuccia Prada. Joris Laarman is such a person. The kind of person I am immediately deeply impressed with. In order to provide a balanced report of his first retrospective, here in the Groninger Museum, I decided to use my heaviest weapon: visiting the exhibition with my sober niece-in-law Eva.
In-laws: I love it. They deliver, unlike my own family, nieces and photographers. Together with Eva Romkes (just 7) and Maaike Dijk (timeless) I visit the exhibition Joris Laarman Lab. Eva is amazed, Maaike photographs. My role, as always, is unclear. "You never really know what to do, do you?" says Eva. Wonderful, such a concise summary of my existence. So don't go to the museum with children to boost your ego, but do go to the museum with children to let them discover whole new worlds: in this way, getting acquainted with the unknown becomes normal, and you provide the open-mindedness of the youthful soul of a nice shot of steroids. And open-mindedness, good morning, we could use some of that in this country.
"You can't sit on that chair, because then you fall." I can't disprove it, because I've never sat on the thirty thousand euro chair
Uncle Petticoat
Okay, back to George! And Eva, who, upon seeing Laarman's famous Bone Chair, which was depicted large on the wall at the beginning of the exhibition, immediately notices: "You cannot sit on that chair, because then you fall." I can't disprove it, because I've never sat on the 30,000-euro seat. That will not happen again, because all objects in the exhibition have non-touch symbols: hands with a line through them. "Can you touch it with your dress?" No Unfortunately; If that had been the case, Uncle Peter would have been walking around in a petticoat by now. At least.
Glitter mats
We walk into a room with three tables that are completely made up of small magnetic blocks: “Hey, I know that one!” Eva shouts. Nothing sweeter than the moment when you see that all those museum visits are starting to bear fruit. Indeed, these tables from the Voxel series were previously elsewhere in the museum, and were already widely admired. Now they are in a room that has been given the title Digital Matter. Eve reads: “Glitter Mattes?” An excellent translation.
Chopstick chair
Then we walk into the great hall, and there it is, but now in real life: the Bone Chair. It is immediately renamed 'stick chair' – I decide to keep my story about how this chair rolled out of the 3D printer according to a bone growth algorithm based on a bone growth algorithm. It is much more important to know how many sticks the chair actually has. We count, and we arrive at thirty. I also like to stimulate empirical research everywhere.
Pure magic
A little further on, in another room, a steel structure looms that cannot be easily interpreted. I'm preparing to tell an erudite story about the free form of this 3D-printed steel structure that... "It's an eight!" Whoops! I hadn't seen it yet, but it's true. If you stand in front of the construction in a certain way, you will see an eight. But if you walk around it, the eight disappears, and a six appears: this work is pure magic, and intriguing beyond measure.
In the background, an impression of Laarman's greatest work-to-be can be seen on the wall: the printed bridge. At my most scientific I explain how the bridge will be made ("Those two beasts blow metal out of their legs and it hardens very quickly, and that's how a bridge is created"), but perhaps better than this sublime explanation is a visit on the bridge itself. We make a deal: when it's finished, we'll go there. This makes this museum visit one with a steel tail. And this article is one of which the design has completely failed again: nothing balanced, we are just lyrical. We couldn't do otherwise.
The Joris Laarman Lab exhibition can be seen in the Groninger Museum until April 10, 2016.
Note: This article has been translated using Google Translate