exhibition

AT FIRST CONTACT

AT FIRST CONTACT explores surface as a condition of perception: the point where an object first meets the observer. Rather than approaching surface as decoration or finish, the exhibition considers how it shapes the way material, form and meaning are seen and understood.

Bringing together international practices across art and design, the exhibition examines how surfaces can reveal or conceal, reflect or distort, and register processes of production, transformation and time. Through different approaches to material and making, surface becomes inseparable from the identity of the object itself.

Together, the works position surface not simply as a boundary, but as a threshold through which material and perception are continuously negotiated.

overview

AT FIRST CONTACT is an exhibition that brings together six international designers. Audrey Large, Clara Schweers, LS Gomma, Niceworkshop, Teun Zwets and Tim Teven explore surface through different materials, techniques and processes. Through furniture, objects and sculptural works, surfaces are altered, layered, coated, reflected, deformed and transformed, revealing distinct relationships between material, process and appearance.

The works are presented within a scenography developed by Niceworkshop in collaboration with FORMAT. New and aged aluminium formwork panels create a spatial framework in which traces of production, construction, use and time remain visible. By placing these different surface conditions alongside one another, the exhibition creates a layered environment where the surfaces of the objects and the surrounding architecture continuously interact.

member

AT FIRST CONTACT brings together six designers with distinct practices and approaches to material and making. Audrey Large, Clara Schweers, LS Gomma, Niceworkshop, Teun Zwets and Tim Teven each explore surface from a different perspective, ranging from digital translation and reflection to coating, deformation, mediation and alteration. Together, their practices create a diverse yet connected dialogue around surface and perception. The scenography is developed by Niceworkshop in collaboration with Seoul-based material partner FORMAT, extending these approaches into the exhibition space itself.