The Holiday Folder
Since the early days of the studio, a folder has been quietly growing. A collection of snapshots taken during travels and everyday moments: markets, candlesticks in churches, a parasol on the beach, materials, compositions, details… These images were never made with a clear intention. They simply captured moments that caught our attention while sitting on a terrace or passing an old storefront. Over time, the collection of images became bigger and bigger growing into an archive of unnoticed design. This archive has become an essential part of our process. At the beginning of almost every project, we return to it. Depending on what we are looking for, it always reveals something different. When thinking about our first solo exhibition, it became clear that The Holiday Folder should be its starting point. This time, the photographs were not used as references for inspiration, but as material to be translated. The snapshots themselves became the origin of the objects.
left: maxforever barcelona, right: screen padova
Looking through the folder with this perspective shifted the way we saw the images. A particular colour, a detail or an atmosphere could become the beginning of a piece. Ray Light, for example, originated from a photograph of a pink mop standing in a bucket inside an antique shop in Pietrasanta. What stood out was not the object itself, but the unexpected presence created by its colour. That observation evolved into a thirty-metre pink light installation at VASTO. Likewise, recurring images of long summer evenings in restaurants informed the development of Sunset Table.
left: platform, milano, right: ray, pietrasanta
Working in this way has also reinforced the idea that design is rarely created in isolation. Everyday observations, anonymous objects and existing techniques become the starting point for new experiments. A detail found in an old door handle or a construction method discovered by chance can be reinterpreted into something entirely new, while remaining connected to a much longer history of making.
All the works in the exhibition are handmade in our studio and workshop in Rotterdam, often in close collaboration with local production companies. Bringing the exhibition together at VASTO marked the completion of one chapter in this archive. At the same time, new photographs taken in cafés across Barcelona have already found their place in The Holiday Folder, waiting to become the starting point for future projects.
sunset, san lucar de barrameda
Info
Location: VASTO
Curation: Carmen Riestra, VASTO
Designer: Forever Studio
Text: Forever Studio
Photographer: Cecilia Díaz Betz
From left to right: Bienke Domenie (1/2 Forever Studio), Carmen Riestra (Founder of VASTO and Curator of the exhibition), and Sara Degenaar (1/2 Forever Studio)