Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law, Science & Technology

Corruption & Death Captured in Glass: Fifa World Cup Filled With Qatari Oil (The Dirtiest Cup) by Andrei Molodkin

The FIFA World Cup in Qatar ends tomorrow with the final match, Argentina v. France. This edition of the football event will go down in history as the most controversial one: the World Cup was indeed overshadowed by the fact that Qatar has a bad record when it comes to human rights violations, ranging from the mistreatment of migrant workers to the discrimination that people from the LGBTQ+ community have to face and to the repressive laws curbing the freedom of expression.

Besides, while the event is coming to an end, investigations are currently continuing about the large sums of money and gifts offered by the Gulf country to members of the European Parliament to influence European decisions. Greek MEP Eva Kaili, her life partner Francesco Giorgi, an aide to a senior member of Parliament, and two others were recently charged with participation in a criminal organisation, corruption and money laundering.

Art-wise, this World Cup can be summarized with a piece created by Andrei Molodkin. The Russian-born artist is known for his works integrating oil and blood that he considers as "currencies" in war and genocide. As a protest against the invasion of Ukraine, Molodkin created a portrait of Russian president Vladimir Putin filled with blood donated by Ukrainian soldiers before going to war (View this photo). In 2009, Molodkin represented Russia at the Venice Biennale with a piece entitled "Le Rouge et Le Noir" in which he used Chechen oil and Russian blood.

In August Spanish football magazine Libero contacted Molodkin and their collaboration resulted in "Fifa World Cup Filled With Qatari Oil (The Dirtiest Cup)". The latter looks like a replica of the famous trophy, but it is actually a glass block with a hollow trophy inside that slowly fills with crude oil, a reference to the fact that Qatar has the third largest oil and natural gas reserves in the world. Indeed, there isn't any gold in this trophy: if you look at the pictures of the artwork a bit better, you'll realise that what looks like gold is actually a stain left by the liquid falling to the bottom.

The trophy has a symbolic price - $150m - a reference to the amount of money Qatar allegedly spent on bribes to Fifa officials, according to US criminal investigators in 2015. The price tag is symbolic, but money from the sale of "The Dirtiest Cup" will be used to support the families of the workers who died building the infrastructures for the World Cup in Qatar.

Since Qatar was awarded the tournament in 2010, thousands of migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka died (over 6,000 according to surveys), or were injured, exploited, lived in squalid, filthy and overcrowded accommodation, suffered abuse, ended up working 14-18 hours a day for roughly $300 a month, and often without paid overtime. Many of them also had to pay a recruitment fee (now illegal) to get these jobs, a fee that generated high debts for them and for the families of those workers who died. Among the latest victims, there is a 24-year-old Kenyan security guard who fell to his death last week falling from the 8th floor of Lusail Stadium.

"The Dirtiest Cup" will be on display tomorrow in London at the Bacon Factory, while an augmented reality version of the artwork is also available.

Interior Design As Art: Richard Hutten

Let's continue the thread about Dutch designers that started on Friday republishing an interview with Richard Hutten. I originally did this piece for another publication.

The international markets are saturated with design products, yet many of them lack any real cultural, practical and functional relationship with the users. In this confusing jungle, there is a key difference between products, though: there are indeed certain objects that create emotional value through materials, shape, weight, smell and tactile characteristics. Among such pieces there are also Richard Hutten's.

Born in 1967, Hutten launched his own design studio in Rotterdam in 1991, just after he graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven. Throughout the years, he worked on a variety of projects and created iconic pieces that, blurring the boundaries between art and interior design but always preserving a healthy dose of irony and playfulness, have become part of the permanent collections of various famous institutions, from the Vitra Design Museum to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Pieces such as his double-handed “Domoor” cups made in collaboration with Droog Design entered history, while his recent “Playing With Tradition” rugs were launched by Priveekollektie Gallery during Design Miami/Basel and his "Books" chair and table were presented by Gallery Judy Straten during the Scope fair.

In October Hutten launched new pieces - his "Apps" sofas inspired by the icons on a smartphone screen for Artifort, his table and lamp for the Fotomuseum in Rotterdam and the latest additions to the This-That-Than series of chairs and the new Layers coffee table in a limited edition of 3 pieces - at Interieur, the European Design Biennale taking place in Kortrijk, Belgium.

In your opinion, what makes Dutch design so different?
Richard Hutten: There is a long tradition in design in the Netherlands, but, in order to be able to innovate and make something that looks fresh, you have to be open-minded, free and radical and Dutch designers usually know how to do it. The other thing is that we don't have too much industry here, so we can talk about ideas and concepts freely without the constrictions that the industry may be putting upon you. 

What's the most frequent feedback you get from people who see your pieces?
Richard Hutten: At Design Miami/Basel the major comments I heard about my work were that the pieces shouldn't have been there, but at Art Basel since my pieces related more to art history than to design history and I was in the wrong context. For me, design is one of the arts - not every painting is art and not every chair is art, but some paintings are art and some chairs are art...

What inspired the blurred pattern in your “Playing With Tradition” rugs?
Richard Hutten: I love Persian rugs and I have an antique one at home. I think they work really well on the floor and give a lot of atmosphere to a room and a space. I was thinking of doing something with the traditional rugs, but come up with a modern version maybe. So I gave it a try and in the end I made four designs. I tried to mix tradition and modernity by stretching the traditional pattern and combine in this way 2000 years of art history in one piece, so on one side you have the traditional pattern that has been there for many centuries, and on the other you have a contemporary piece that has been created by taking all the colours and patterns out. I used the vintage carpet I had at home for one of these designs, and I cut the pattern at a certain point so that all the colours would come out and the final piece would look really alive. I used the computer to make the design that it was then sent to the craftspeople in India and it was really funny in a way as they weren't really used to do such patterns, they were really surprised!

At the moment there is a lot of talk about Open Source pieces also in interior design, are you working on any projects along these lines?
Richard Hutten: Coincidentally at the moment I'm working with Droog Designs again on a project called “Copy China” that deals with open source and copyright and that kind of stuff. The whole idea is to spark new dialogues about these themes. We're working on a collection that will hopefully be presented in Milan next April. China copied us so much that it's time to copy China back!

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Add to Technorati Favorites

Lijit Search

 

A Lesson from...Designer Tiles

Between the late '70s and the early '80s, during the boom years of the Italian fashion industry, many fashion designers extended their businesses into homeware and interior design selling licences and launching collaborations with specific producers. Tableware and bed linens were popular options for most of them, but there were quite a few ones who focused on more durable elements, such as tiles.

The most popular options were ceramic tiles for bathrooms and the best thing about them was that these tiles weren't even extremely expensive. I do not come from an aristocratic family, but we had Valentino tiles in our bathroom (even though we opted for them not necessarily because Valentino had made them - in fact we couldn't care less - but because we liked the colour combination of the plants featured on them).

Valentino was actually one of the main fashion designers who did collaborations with tile manufacturers (mainly with Piemme). Shells, the sea and marine motifs were popular themes for bathroom tiles as proved by these tiles by Valentino (first image in this post), and by Italian painter, sculptor, designer and decorator Fornasetti (by Ceramica Bardelli), all on display at the Cupra Marittima Museum of Malacology.

The most interesting thing about such home elements was the fact that they were thought not with trends but with durability and timelessness in mind: tiles are indeed made to last and you rarely decide to change them on a whim. Maybe these designer tiles still have something to teach us: let's focus more on timelessness and less on trends when shopping not only for tiles, but also for clothes and accessories. 

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Add to Technorati Favorites

Lijit Search