By Sophie Krier / 14-02-2008

20 students from the Rietveld Academie Amsterdam left for Nepal this week to work with students from Kathmandu. This exchange project was initiated by Erna Anema and is being led by Aaf van Essen, Manon van Kouswijk, Matthias Keller, Ellert Haitjema, Joost Post and Sophie Krier. Design.nl asked Sophie, head of the Design Lab department at the Rietveld Academie, to keep a weblog over the coming weeks.

"For about 6 hours now, desert had been passing by my window. Erna comes and sits next to me, anxious to ask me something. Can we talk about Nepal, she said. “ Nepal? In the middle of the Lybian desert?” Perhaps it was this estranged setting... Perhaps it was Erna’s insurmountable enthusiasm... Perhaps it was my own secret wish to go to Nepal one day... Whatever it was, it all came together during that talk inside a touring bus with 50 Rietveldians hungry for other worlds, in April of 2006.

Eight months and a few coffees later, our common wish took on the shape of a serious project plan, supported by the board of directors of the academy. We split tasks: I was to lobby within the Rietveld for support from the craft-oriented departments Txt (textile), Jewelry and Ceramics. Erna would take care of keeping in touch with her contacts in Kathmandu, acquired after nearly 30 years of regular visits. Another early partner in the project was Aaf van Essen, an expert in social dynamics, the human body (Aaf was a nurse for 40 years), graphic design and not least a former partner in another Rietveld journey, to India in 1998 under the guidance of Peik Suyling.

Summer came, and summer went. September 2007 marked the official launch of the project with a lecture by Erna that felt like a visual avalanche and a selective call for project proposals. In autumn 2007 the budget was finally secured. Green light! At this point the team was enriched by students from Glass, Graphic Design, Architecture, Writing and Photography.

Erna talks about Nepal: “Despite the sometimes considerable poverty a lot of attention is given to a well-cared-for appearance, courtesy and helpfulness. The Nepalese possess a pleasant openness and curiosity. Despite a fondness for traditions (a lot of ‘festivals’) there is a visible urge to learn and a huge ability to adapt oneself. What is also special: the unemphatic but obvious way of living with religion as ‘philosophy’ – in Nepal Hinduism and Buddhism go as a matter-of-course hand in hand."

Background to the project

The project’s wish is to let Dutch culture and Nepalese culture meet, somewhere in the middle, or a little bit in both worlds... The exchange is therefore articulated around two working periods, one in Nepal (in February 2008) and one in the Netherlands (in September 2008) to which students of the Art academies in Kathmandu and in Amsterdam will participate.

The project strives to offer space to experiment with:
- different forms of cooperation (A guide passes on his knowledge and expertise to others through stories. A guide functions as link. On the basis of his own network a guide can make connections with his/her culture. The work format ‘a student guide + a student guide’ will enable a complementary cooperation: plans from both sides will be commented, enabling double cultural perspective on a topic and enabling complementary realisation schemes.)
- communication to and from far away
- reflection on - and dialogue with another culture
- realisation of ideas in consultation with third parties (without the comfort of one’s mother tongue).

An important focus of the journey is to investigate the meaning of craftsmanship for society today. Craftsmanship is invariably connected with study, industry, attention. In Simone Weil‘s (1909 – 1943) opinion there is no more important notion than attention ( ‘attention’): “to give attention to something has got nothing to do with willpower. (…) It is a matter of expectancy, a matter of letting the world appeal to you, looking around open-mindedly. (…) Good education is a long lasting practice in attention”.


Sophie Krier graduated in design. She teaches, writes and researches in design related subjects and is head of the Design Lab department at the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.

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