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notes
1 Craft Portrait: Dorozome exhibited at gallery Kazerne for the exhibition Between No-Longer and Not-Yet during Dutch Design Week 2021, photography by Yuta Sawamura
2 Craft Portrait: Dorozome publication
3 Craft Portrait: Dorozome exhibited at Atelier MUJI Ginza
4 Installation textiles drying in the air
5 Kanai Kougei workshop
6 Treasures of the workshop
7 Japanese traditional craftsmanship certification
8 Extracts from our Deep Mind for the exhibition re-FORMAT at Z33 (Design by Jore Dierckx)
9 Washing the textiles by the river with Kazuko-san
1 Craft Portrait: Dorozome exhibited at gallery Kazerne for the exhibition Between No-Longer and Not-Yet during Dutch Design Week 2021, photography by Yuta Sawamura
2 Craft Portrait: Dorozome publication
3 Craft Portrait: Dorozome exhibited at Atelier MUJI Ginza
4 Installation textiles drying in the air
5 Kanai Kougei workshop
6 Treasures of the workshop
7 Japanese traditional craftsmanship certification
8 Extracts from our Deep Mind for the exhibition re-FORMAT at Z33 (Design by Jore Dierckx)
9 Washing the textiles by the river with Kazuko-san
01. Craft Portrait: Dorozome
Craft Portrait is a series of projects on contemporary craftsmanship co-initiated with Japanese designer Satomi Minoshima.
The first edition explores Dorozome, a traditional Japanese mud-dyeing technique. The process involves repeatedly dyeing white threads with tree bark and mud until they reach a deep black colour.
The installation, created during a 3-week research trip to Amami Oshima in Japan, is a four-meter-high tent where Dorozome colours continuously twist to meet and separate again. Their movement recalls the gestures of the artisans during the repetitive cycle of wringing, which is omnipresent throughout the dyeing process. The installation highlights the usually invisible process colours of the technique. By tackling the so-called artisan aesthetic –the aesthetic of artefacts incomplete or in the process– a stage is provided to those anonymous colours to exist.
Additionally to the immersive installation, a publication compiles eleven interviews of Dorozome artisans, accompanied by a photography series. By involving the artisans and creating space for their testimonies, stories and opinions on their craft, we lead a dialogue surrounding craftsmanship that values the speech of the people performing it every day –at its core, the project originates from the wish to narrate craftsmanship in the most forthright way.
At the heart of the Craft Portrait series lies the desire to tell the story of crafts in a new way. Moving beyond nostalgic or exoticizing narratives often associated with traditional crafts, Craft Portrait: Dorozome explores the alternative, almost rebellious potential of craftsmanship and what essential values it could contribute towards a more sustainable and conscious future.
2020-2021
Collaboration with designer Satomi Minoshima
Collaboration with Yukihito Kanai and the artisans of Dorozome workshop Kanai Kougei
Mechanical design by Matiss Balodis
Exhibitions
2025 (upcoming) Fermenting Textiles, Art Laboratory Berlin, Germany
2023 Swiss Design Awards, Basel, Switzerland
2022 Research! Design with Fascinating Processes, Atelier Muji Ginza, Tokyo, Japan
2022 Design Fest Gent, Design Museum Gent, Gent, Belgium
2021-2022 Between No-Longer and Not-Yet, Kazerne, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
2021 re-FORMAT, Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture, Hasselt, Belgium
Realized during the fellowship program FORMAT of Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture
Supported by POLA Art Foundation