Workshop Elisa van Joolen: PORTAL 012

As part of the Sneakers Under Construction presentation, designer Elisa van Joolen has developed a new edition of PORTAL (2017 – present) together with the Young Design Team. In this unique masterclass edition of PORTAL you will have the opportunity to immerse yourself in the design and research practice of Elisa van Joolen. The intimate full-day workshop is divided into two parts. In the first part you will learn the tricks of the trade from Elisa and you will discuss texts, videos and objects together to gain insight into her research practice. In the second part of the day you will get to work on the research and design in a practical way. The Young Design Team will provide lunch.

This will be the 12th version of Elisa’s PORTAL workshops. As in other editions, research into the value of clothing is central; participants are asked to take off a piece of clothing, place it in front of them on one large canvas and line it with tape. In the Design Museum, the focus will be on sneakers. Participants answer questions about the outlined sneaker, for example about origin, material, ownership and (emotional) value. Then, together with Van Joolen, the group connects the sneakers with similar characteristics with color-coded tape. The intersecting lines on the PORTAL canvas show a chaotic interplay of intersecting personal stories. The result is a collective canvas, on which the different colored lines show that in our sneakers there is a trace of connections between personal, economic, social, cultural and political areas.