Atelier Remy & Veenhuizen. «Thinking hands»

March 5 → April 27, 2024

At the end of September 2023, the Dutch design duo Tejo Remy and René Veenhuizen arrived in Marmolejo, a village in the Jaén countryside nestled between the gentle undulations of the Sierra Morena and the so-called "sea of olive trees". For ten days they stayed in the family home of contemporary art collector Joaquín Romeu, a stately mansion magnificently preserved since its construction at the end of the 18th century.

From there, every day, Tejo and René went to the ceramics factory of Juan Carlos Muñoz, located in Andújar, where throughout the day they shared design ideas with the Dutch and ceramic techniques with the Muñoz family. After this period of exchange of knowledge, conversations and, above all, experimentation, two prototypes were created, which, together with other pieces in the form of sketches, make up the exhibition we present on planta1.

These prototypes will be produced in a special edition of 10 copies each, handmade and individually enameled, with a certificate of authenticity from the authors.

They will be marketed through the company CRAFTE, which will be adding pieces to its set of objects/works with other authors, designers and artists that will be part of future collaborative projects with Spanish and other countries' artisans.

Reactivating these trades in danger of disappearing, offering a new outlet for them and facilitating the consumption of these newly created works to a greater number of people, is the meaning and the fundamental objective of this project that is presented today at planta1.

The exhibition that can be visited from next Tuesday, March 5 will travel later during the month of April to the new room of the Museum of Contemporary Art Mayte Spínola that the City Council of Marmolejo will dedicate from that moment to the dissemination of current creative currents.

→ This project has been carried out in collaboration with the Marmolejo City Council, Cerámica Muñoz (Andújar) and Colección Joaquín Romeu.

Atelier Remy & Veenhuizen was formed in 2000, although its two members have been active since the 1990s, when Dutch design burst onto the world scene. Their working model is based on institutional commissioned works, some of them well known, and their independent projects.

Their design process is as interesting and commendable as the final result objects themselves and can be framed within an umbrella composed by the commitment to the environment that surrounds them, the absolute freedom of creation, research, experimentation and the use of materials in most cases recycled. Never subject to the laws of the market of "typical design objects", their work follows the rebellion against the system.

Their pieces are oriented from the beginning to the achievement of forms of unquestionable aesthetic beauty, that fulfill their function of utility and that in most of them can be considered unique pieces since they are elaborated by themselves one by one.
The ceramic works presented in Madrid are their first incursion into the design and production of serial works.

Present in the most important design collections worldwide, such as: MOMA, New York; MOMA, San Francisco; CENTRAAL MUSEUM, Utrecht; LACMA, Los Angeles; VITRA MUSEUM, Weill am Rhein; NATIONAL GALLERY VICTORIA, Melbourne.