NOUS SOMMES VIVANTS, LE COLLECTIF DE LA TRANSITION ÉCOLOGIQUE

Hacking
existing design is a recent phenomenon. Around the world, for a variety
of personal motives, professional and nonprofessional designers are
making individual alterations to off-the-shelf products. In the
process, they pay little or no attention to a product’s original
function. Some do it for fun, others out of necessity, and still others
out of a critical attitude toward mass production. IKEA hacks – the
appropriation, adaptation and transformation of standard IKEA products
– are among the most noticeable expressions of this movement.

IKEA is a very successful and consumer friendly multinational, with
a large fan base all across the Western and Asian world. But it is also
a cultural entity, an economic force and an icon of global change.
Therefore it is not surprising that numerous artists and designers as
well as the general public, have a special relationship with IKEA.

Platform21 = Hacking IKEA shows the work of those professionals and
amateurs and commissions new work by makers to whom the practise of
hacking is central.

GYNEA by Sander van Bussel – Photography Leo Veger

Platform21 = Hacking Ikea was part of the festival 4 Weeks of
FreeDesignDom (September 2008) in Amsterdam and showed an adjusted
version of the exhibition during the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. It
travelled to South Korea to be part of Design MADE – Manifesto for
Annual Design Exhibition – in November 2008 and will travel to the 2009
Biennale Montreal later this year.

With a growing amount of contributions by a.o. designers and
artists: Bas van Beek, Joe Scanlan, Cynthia Hathaway,
Remy&Veenhuizen, Bjorn Andreassen, Sander van Bussel, Eric Morel,
Studio VOLLAERSZWART, Helmut Smits, Frank Bruggeman, Daan van den Berg,
Stefaan Dheedene, Jason Salavon, Maarten Vanden Eynde, Kieren Jones,
Eric Von Robertson, Rutger Emmelkamp, Studio Plus, Mark Hoekstra, Alan
D. Joseph, Daniel Saakes, Dinie Besems, Guus Alders and Sander Kunst,
Zinoo Park, Kira Kim, Kyum Bi, Jihoon Ha, Sanghyun Joo, Mikyung Lee and
Heesung Kim.