KABK: on stage / 103

The historic academy of art and design stages the creative process in its workshops by involving visitors in a series of interactive performances.

With the "Back stage on stage", the Royal Academy of Art at The Hague, the AJA, creates a stage for the creative process: a continuous programme of performances and happenings where studies and products are created, shared, presented and taken down before the visitors' eyes.

KABK: Back stage on stage, view of the exhibition

This special series of projects pushes the boundaries of manipulation and refines the concept of "design" conveying the school's programme that brings together all art and design disciplines, demonstrating the Dutch Academy's unconventional lines of thinking.

In "Coexist" for example, Nynke Koster offers her personal interpretation of the spaces of the academy and transforms them into furniture. Applying a special rubber to a number of details of the building of the school (including a copy of the famous Gate of Paradise by Lorenzo Ghiberti), Koster has created the casts/moulds for her furniture. Martijn Rigters, in his project "Cutting Edge" uses a hot-wire cutting technique to obtain objects from large foam cubes.

During the cutting, each movement of the visitor is instantly translated into a form. As such the designer can use the human body of the user and each of their movements as a means of design and part of the production.