Droog toasts 30 years of irreverent design

Irreverent and rebellious, Dutch design collective Droog held its first Milan presentation in 1993. Thirty years on, Milan’s Triennale and Rotterdam’s Het Nieuwe Instituut present ‘Droog30. Design or Non-design?’, assembled by independent curator and Wallpaper* Milan Editor Maria Cristina Didero and Richard Hutten, Droog founding member alongside fellow designers including Gijs Bakker and Renny Ramakers. The collective’s name is a Dutch word meaning ‘dry’, indicating a general preference for a minimalist and essential approach to design.

Droog at 30: a revolutionary take on design

‘Droog can be considered one of the last movements of the 20th century, it was the explosion of a shared common sensibility,’ comments Didero. ‘Their revolutionary idea lay in an approach towards the object that was more conceptual and less functional: even if the function was there, they started from a more artistic approach, compared to the typical one that characterised the designers of the time.’

The exhibition revisits some of Droog’s most memorable pieces, from Tejo Remy’s ‘Chest of Drawers’ (a series of individual drawers haphazardly fastened together with a belt), to Marcel Wanders’ ‘Knotted Chair’ and Hutton’s cross-shaped table. 

Held at Triennale during Milan Design Week, the exhibition will also feature notes and comments from the global design community, gathered by Didero and Hutten via Twitter account @Droog30, to demonstrate the collective’s impact through the memories and points of view of those who have been observing its work and history.

‘A group of young and unscrupulous Dutch designers who created their own projects in a relatively isolated context had come to exhibit in Milan with great success,’ says Hutten. ‘Probably today, with Instagram and other social media platforms, it would be unlikely that such an episode will repeat itself, and that is why we used the internet to collect opinions and anecdotes, questioning ourselves on the influence Droog had and still has. An algorithm then has decided which objects to exhibit. But above all, this exhibition is a celebration of Droog's creativity.’

‘Droog30 – Design or non-design?’ Is an itinerant exhibition curated by Maria Cristina Didero and Richard Hutten

Triennale (Viale Emilio Alemagna, 6, Milano), 15-23 April 2023

Het Nieuwe Instituut, (Museumpark 25, Rotterdam), 2 May – 27 august 2023

droog.com