Made in Mirrors

REFLEXION - a genuine willingness to explore communication

REFLEXION From 5th April until 12th May in the project room of Museum Het Domein in Sittard fashion designer Els Beusen (1980, Haarlem) and Hiroaki Kanai (1982, Osaka) present a book and clothing made following a one-month residency in Guangzhou, China as part of the Made in Mirrors project. Opening Friday April 4th 2008 5pm.

Sittard based fashion designer Els Beusen (1980, Haarlem) and her Japanese fellow designer Hiroaki Kanai (1982, Osaka) present a book and clothing made following a one month residency at Vitamin Creative Space in Guangzhou, China as part of the Made in Mirrors project. Made in Mirrors is an intercultural mirroring experiment, an exchange model aimed at opening up perspectives between the Netherlands, China and Brazil. The observations they made from everyday life as well as during the workshop given at the South China Agricultural University College of the Arts in Guangzhou lead to the making of the book presented here:

'Guangzhou city reports_ Reflections between the Netherlands and China.'.

During their stay, Els and Hiroaki explored intercultural communication through the medium of fashion design. For the designers, and equally for the Made in Mirrors Foundation, practice and promotion of environmental sustainability has a high priority and through the residency the designers hoped to encourage environmental awareness. During this project Els and Hiroaki tried to use exclusively recycled and ecological materials wherever possible. See also ‘Report’ for an exclusive report of Els and Hiroaki’s day to day experience in Guangzhou.

At the same time in Museum Het Domein the solo exposition contemporary art Bonzenspeck und Prollgehabe of Kati Heck (until June 15).