Renny Ramakers
Imagination As A Catalyst For Social Change
Thursday at 7:30 p.m. - October 17, 2019
Sala Aleix Carrió / Students Room (streaming)
Elisava
Renny Ramakers is an Amsterdam based art historian. She is co-founder and director of Droog, the renowned experimental design initiative from the Netherlands. In 1993 she and Gijs Bakker started Droog as an anti-statement; a down to earth design mentality with a human touch that opposed the high style and form- based world of design.
Today, Ramakers' work often reaches beyond the realms of design. She created the research-and-do programme Design+Desires with the aim to develop new perspectives on a changing society. She is also working as an independent critic and curator, and lectures worldwide. She has curated various events, such as the huge presentation Open Borders in Lille, featuring cutting-edge European designers, artists, architects and other creative people, and Pioneers of Change, a festival of Dutch design, fashion and architecture on New York’s Governors Island. Currently, she is curator of N’GOLÁ, the eighth Biennial of Arts and Culture in São Tomé e Príncipe in Africa. As a critic, she has contributed to international magazines and catalogues, and authored several books. A book about her life and work, written by Aaron Betsky, has been published early 2019. She was named one of the “150 Women Who Shake the World” by the American magazine Newsweek and received the Dutch Royal Honors for her work.