The Dutch collective We Make Carpets, known for its playful aesthetic, gets a chance to shine during Milan Design Week with its Fold and Crease project.

During the highly-anticpated Milan Design Week 2024, Bob Waardenburg, Marcia Nolte, and Stijn van der Vleuten, the members of the Amsterdam-based trio We Make Carpets, were invited to exhibit their work in the Milanese flagship store of <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/issey-miyake-pfw-show">Issey Miyake</a> (in via Bagutta from April 16 to April 29). &ldquo;We don't make real and functional carpets; we make installations, and from our name you can imagine our more playful side,&rdquo; says Bob Waardenburg. &ldquo;For us the carpet is just a support, a blank canvas on which to explore patterns, colors, and everyday objects. On our carpets you can find abrasive sponges, cheap forks, shuttlecocks, and clothespins. Ours is a project that questions daily life, in which the vision constantly changes depending on the theme, but every result we obtain is the result of a collective of minds.
Ahead of <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/milan-design-week-2024-fashion-collections-what-to-see">Milan Design Week</a> and the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/travel-living/things-to-do-in-milan-salone-del-mobile">Salone del Mobile</a>, Waardenburg spoke to L'OFFICIEL about the brand's unique aesthic and idiosyncratic approach.

L'OFFICIEL: How did you start working together?
BOB WAARDENBURG: We met during our studies; I was studying art while Marcia and Stijn attended the Design Academy in Eindhoven. Together we prepared our first exhibition entitled Instant Nature during the Dutch Design Week in 2009, and thus the first carpet, &ldquo;Forest Carpet,&rdquo; was born, made with organic materials taken from the forests: pine cones, pine needles, moss, and acorns.
 L&rsquo;O: What does it mean to collaborate in a collective?&nbsp;
BW: I am a visual artist, Marcia is a landscape architect, and Stijn is an interior and exhibition designer. We have three different studios and a triple point of view. Our work aims to explore the different possibilities of combining colors and patterns in space. Marcia is also my partner; we got engaged even before we founded the collective.
 L&rsquo;O: Tell us more about the Fold and Crease project.
BW: We had an exhibition in 2016 for the 21_21 Design Sight space in Tokyo [an institution created by Tadao Ando and Issey Miyake to communicate the values of design to new generations], and we wanted to collaborate with the brand again for something special for the Milan boutique, designed by Tokujin Yoshioka in a historic 19th-century building. They gave us carte blanche in sharing the brand's values. In November, we carried out a research inspection. We had two boxes sent to us with materials from the Tokyo style office&mdash;sample pins, buttons, stickers, and needles&mdash;and we realized that attention to detail was a common denominator. We were very attracted by the pins, and began to insert them into the foam for the works &ldquo;Pin Carpet 2,&rdquo; &ldquo;Pin Carpet 3,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Pin Carpet 4;&rdquo; then we inserted the resulting product into wooden support frames to give it a shape and new textures, depending on the movement of the pins. Then we worked on &ldquo;Skewer Carpet 2&rdquo; with kitchen skewers.&nbsp;
 L&rsquo;O: What&rsquo;s the significance of using objects from everyday life in your works?&nbsp;
BW: Marcia and Stijn are often found working on the product&mdash;Stijn owns entire collections of objects [crepe paper, pencils, paper clips, and more]&mdash;and for us it is a reinterpretation of the ready-made practice. We want our works to be beautiful to look at and interesting to observe in detail, which is why we try to give a second life, albeit aesthetic and not functional, to objects.
 L&rsquo;O: Where does your inspiration come from?&nbsp;
BW: From everyday life. It's as if we compose our art instinctively. Most of the time our works are site-specific: we intervene on the environment we have available.
 L&rsquo;O: Does your work reference any specific artist or designer?
BW: We try not to have any! But, speaking for myself, I am very influenced by traditional living room rugs.
 L&rsquo;O: What is the response you desire from viewers of Fold and Crease?
BW: [We hope] that our installations will invite people to take time to look at them and assimilate, see objects with a different perspective, and stimulate curiosity.

Portrait of Bob Waardenburg, Marcia Nolte, and Stijn van der Vleuten, courtesy We Make Carpets

This Kitchsy Dutch Carpet Brand Is Taking Over Milan Design Week

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