Research Cell Materiality

Rietveld Sandberg Research is developing a new research cell with a thematic focus on Materials. Research in Materials builds on the tradition within the Gerrit Rietveld Academie of working with physical materials. The development of this research cell is closely linked to the workshops, where work can be made and materials constructed, deconstructed and explored to their full potential. Outside the institution, besides artists and designers, the intention is to involve industrial companies, laboratories and research institutions specialized in research, development and application of new and existing materials.

We started with a working group making inventory of the potential of materiality research specifically for the Rietveld Academie and Sandberg Instituut. This was concluded with an essay written by Louise Schouwenberg. Currently we are looking into further funding possibilities to let this cell grow further, which would also enable us to start a third Creator Doctus trajectory on this topic.

The team

Márk Redele is project coordinator at Sandberg Research where they contribute to the development and operation of postgraduate research activities in the academy. They studied architecture in their origin country, Hungary, and received a master's degree from Studio for Immediate Spaces in 2016. Since then, they have been a practicing artist pursuing self-initiated and commission-based works with a strong emphasis on material discovery. In their practice materials become the protagonists of stories personal and public, factual and fictive. These stories interrogate the subversive potential of simple material qualities such as porosity, softness and fluidity as well as the possibility of kinship, love and reconciliation in vibrant matter, under repressive conditions.