Yii, New Street Life. An interview with Gijs Bakker

Design and craftsmanship brought together to produce a new aesthetic "made in Taiwan".

Inspired by nature

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Everyday life is the underlying theme linking a new collection presented by Yii (which means change, transformation), an initiative by the Taiwan Craft Research Institute under the creative direction of Gijs Bakker. Taiwanese street-life rituals have been translated into a number of objects by a group of 12 Taiwanese and three international designers (Grcic, Campana and Nendo) and as many Taiwanese craftspeople. This is, indeed, a marriage between designers and craftspeople, who find themselves on the same level.

Why did you decide to extend the collection to international designers?
At first, I only wanted to work with designers and craftsmen from Taiwan. I didn't want to join the bandwagon of Western designers who go to China to produce cheap and easy products. Last year, we only had Taiwanese designers but this year we have a stronger identity and decided we could manage the situation better so I proposed Nendo (which created the exhibition design) and the Campana brothers. It was interesting to see how an office from Japan, and so with a strong culture, would approach the theme. They did so with a fascinating reflection on the bamboo culture. Basically, each designer chose a craftsperson to work closely with for six months, with the aim of showcasing the artisan's technical skill in the design.

Shapes of the Scent by Tong Ho (craftsman: Kao-ming Chen) is an interpretation of the traditional incense burner found in Buddhist temples.

What are the main differences compared with last year?
The first collection was more closely linked to craftsmanship and consisted mostly, perhaps, in pieces of art but this year it is design-led. The designers felt freer and arrived with their own ideas.

Yii is still a collection that reflects the place where it was born and was conceived – Taiwan.?
What I have done with Droog, in my office and on the Master course I am running in Eindhoven was to surround the design with a context. The context steers part of the process, you cannot ignore your own part of the world. I am sick and tired of this global aesthetic that seems imbued in every product. In Taiwan, for instance, a fifth of the space in every home is given over to a small Buddhist temple. I am interested in how this can be reflected in a design. You can see it with the metal incense burner designed by Tong Ho, which resembles a flower. It could be developed as an object that folds flat, produced at a cost of 4 Euros and sold for 20 Euros in a shop. That is a real industrial-design object but it is steeped in the culture of where it was created.

Triennale di Milano
Viale Alemagna 6, Milan
12-17.04.2011, 10.30 am-10 pm