Eclectic, visionary, playful, iconoclastic. These are the adjectives most frequently used by critics and journalists when trying to define the creative journey of Marcel Wanders.
A designer unlike any other, in his style as much as in his work, with feathered jackets and Indian necklaces, capable of creating a chair by knotting filaments like macramé lace when they are actually carbon fibres (the Knotted Chair, from 1996, now part of the collection of the MoMa in New York). Or of designing an enveloping two-seater sofa and calling it — so as to leave no doubt about its function — Love Sofa. A designer who, in 2005, together with chef Peter Lute, created a hotel such as Lute Suites: seven 18th-century cottages transformed into seven entirely different suites overlooking the Amstel River near Amsterdam. At the same time, he has never stopped applying his irrepressible creativity to projects of every kind, ceramics, mattresses, furniture, accessories and lighting, for brands such as Alessi, Audi, Bisazza, Flos, Poliform, Boffi, British Airways, Louis Vuitton, Miramar Group and Morgans Hotel Group, while also leading Moooi since 2001, the studio he founded together with Casper Vissers.
Why. Because beyond everything else, Marcel Wanders, born in Boxtel, the Netherlands, in 1963, is also an extraordinarily prolific designer, with more than 2,000 projects completed over a little more than 30 years, some of them included in the collections of institutions such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the StedelijkMuseum Amsterdam. Guided by a precise philosophy: creating objects capable of engaging, provoking and entertaining. We met him shortly after the intense days of the Milan Design Week where, in April, 25 years after his Italian debut, he returned to the monumental spaces of Superstudio in Via Tortona with the major retrospective exhibition “Moooi 25 and Promising”.
After so many years of work and such varied experiences, what does design mean to you today?
I prefer to begin by saying what it does not mean: it is not about focusing on what to bring to a Design Week, nor about thinking of what to do in order to be successful or satisfy public taste. For me, design is a language, my language for the world, the way I can express who I am and how much I care about the people who work with me and those who choose my objects.
To me, design has much more to do with emotion than with technique. It is a design process that allows me to create simple objects capable of making everyday life special. Daily life can be very ordinary, of course, but design can make it unique, and I think that is beautiful because, in the end, we only have one life: why not live it in a celebratory way? Stimulating strange ideas, strange dreams, strange opportunities — this is the most interesting aspect of my work, what I have always considered the true function of Design.”
At Milan Design Week you presented an exhibition retracing the last 25 years of your career. Was it the closing of a circle or, as the title suggested, a new beginning?
The Milan exhibition ‘25 and Promising’ was not even remotely about closing a circle; I definitely see it more as a new beginning. When they asked me to celebrate this anniversary, I thought: ‘Okay, but what does that actually mean? I don’t want to be celebrated as an established designer. I want to remain feaking curious, just as I was when I was literally 25 years old. I want to continue being “promising”, knowing that whatever I may have done yesterday will be overshadowed by what I will do from now on.’ And after all these years, that is the only promise I still feel able to make as a designer.
In 2001 you founded Moooi, from the Dutch word “mooi”, meaning “beautiful”, to which you added a third “o” to suggest an extra level of beauty. How has the brand evolved over the years?
Today Moooi is a fully-fledged company. Between employees and collaborators, around 200 people are involved, and over time the organization has become increasingly structured, otherwise you simply cannot endure and continue growing for so many years; you cannot survive.
But every day within Moooi, I have mainly tried to overturn the concept of creative leadership and convince people that my absence was more important than my presence. And that is exactly the case, because I can be the greatest obstacle to a young designer’s creativity. What matters is remaining faithful to a shared vision which, for me today, means rediscovering the human dimension of design, the element that connects designer, maker and client.
A philosophy that seems to contrast with the increasingly widespread applications of AI…
On the contrary, I personally believe that artificial intelligence is an invitation to redefine human intelligence and its horizons. When, for example, the electric guitar was invented, it did not prevent the acoustic guitar from continuing to exist; in fact, we all began to better understand and appreciate its qualities precisely because the electric guitar also existed.
I think this is a wonderful moment. AI is here now and it is not going away. As I also explained in a special issue of Grazia, for which I curated the art direction, my first experience with a magazine, the more machines become perfect, the more we desire what carries the warmth of time and the human touch: ageing, patina, craftsmanship.
The next great movement in design will not come from algorithms or automation, but from a renewed understanding of what it means to be human. Artificial intelligence is not the end of creativity. On the contrary, it is an invitation to expand it.
Among the hundreds of objects you have designed so far, there is still nothing related to the nautical world. Why is that? Would you like to explore this field as well?
Absolutely yes. In fact, some time ago we worked on a yacht project that, for various reasons, was never built. A pity, it was fantastic, and I would love to revisit it one day. Actually, if someone wants me to do it, they can contact me.
