Iconic Dutch Design is recontexualized by a younger generation in the jubilee exhibition of contemporary design publisher Thomas Eyck. In collaboration with Zuiderzee Museum and curator Jules van den Langenberg this section is first to publish a series of new projects.
 
To mark his jubilee ten product series were selected from Thomas Eyck’s collection, which are exemplary for the collaborations the publisher & distributor has developed with designers and producers since 2007. Accordingly, ten young designers, artists and architects were invited to create a project in which the iconic t.e. objects are studied and recontextualised. The retrospective exhibition reviews the past decade and forecasts a potential future for the t.e. collection. Installation 7/10 ‘ the Elm Collection’ is a reflection on the ‘Leather Collection’ series of utensils created for Thomas Eyck in 2013 by VanHoffOntwerpen in collaboration with De Buffel, Kuperus & Gardenier and Roxal.
 
Elm Collection
Contemporary Wild works with local materials and challenges traditions. In this installation, the designers’ collective responds to a series of items made of leather, underpinned by elm. The designers carried out an intensive study of the elm; the tree is threatened with extinction elsewhere in the world, but still grows in abundance in the Netherlands. In this installation, the designers show the unique and sometimes unexpected qualities of the elm as wood. The elmwood barrel vat that they have created is ageing a distilled drink. In ten years, at the twentieth anniversary of Thomas Eyck, the man himself will be able to celebrate with this elm-flavoured drink.

Contemporary Wild reflects on a serie of VanHoffOntwerpen. Designer Dick van Hoff combines fine craftsmanship with industrial techniques. He designed a series of eight utensils of quality leather and elm, ‘Leather Collection’, for Thomas Eyck in 2013. The lunch set, bags, wood basket, day bed, table, and chair are functional and robust, but subtly detailed and finished.
For this series VanHoffOntwerpen worked closely with leather business De Buffel. De Buffel was founded in 1951 and is now one of the few leather processing companies remaining in the Netherlands and western Europe. Carpentry workshop Kuperus & Gardenier in Lelystad makes the wooden components. This company specialises in modern and traditional carpentry and the restoration, reconstruction and maintenance of historic buildings and ships.
 
The exhibition 10 Years of Thomas Eyck is open until 14 May 2017 at Zuiderzee Museum Enkhuizen