Richard Hutten's 18 years of Playing

Exhibitions / Product design

We caught up with Richard Hutten after the opening of his exhibition at the Design Museum Gent to find out about the challenges of designing his own retrospective.

By Jeanne Tan /asdf 10-03-2010

"It's all a game to me, you win some, lose some, it's all the same to me."

What was the concept behind the design of the exhibition?
Richard Hutten: The idea was to make a setting in which the visitor not only could look at the items on display, but actually participate in the exhibition by playing. An exhibition as a game.

Was it a challenge to design your own retrospective? Was it quite an emotional process looking back at all your work?
It was a difficult process but fun. It's a good moment to reflect again on your own work, rethink the process, and see and show the links between the different designs.

Thoughts going through your head at the exhibition opening?
It was really fun, a party to celebrate my work. Not so often do I have the pleasure to see this many of my own designs together. I enjoyed very much all the people and friends showing up en enjoying the party. Serious fun.

Any particularly favourite highlights you want to share with us from the last 18 years? Any lowlights?
Of course this show is one of the highlights. But there have been many. The fact that the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam bought my graduation work, made when I was 23. The show I had in the MoMA New York when I was 29, and so on. But the biggest highlights are the designs I make and the place they get in people's lives.
And the lowlights.....well, to quote Lemmy, the singer of my favorite band Motorhead: "It's all a game to me, you win some, lose some, it's all the same to me."

And what do you hope to achieve in the next 18 years?
I just want to keep on playing. I'm working on a book titled Homo Ludens, as a homage to Johan Huizinga, and as a follow up to his book with the same title. This book has to become my master piece, but it will take me at least another 3 years. Like Huizinga said: 'Playing is only fun when you do it serious'.

If there was a piece in the exhibition you would show to someone who didn't know your work, what would it be?
I would not choose it, but I would let them choose. I found out that different people have different preferences. And they are always right.