Gijs Bakker has high hopes for his Yii-project. ‘My aim is to prove that a conceptual approach generates different products when placed in a new context’, he says. In general, conceptuality is independent of context. But when you link it to local skills and culture, that's when it becomes really interesting. 

In the case of Yii, the new context we are talking about is Taiwan. With jewellery designer and co-founder of Droog Design Gijs Bakker as curator and in collaboration with local craftsmen, 15 Taiwanese designers have created 47 products that debuted at Milan’s Triennale Design Museum during the Italian city’s Design Week. ‘The Taiwanese Craft Council invited me to do this project,’ Bakker recounts. ‘They’ve known me since 2006, when I developed a line of products for the gift shop of the National Palace Museum in Taipei together with some young Taiwanese designers. We tried to steer clear of tacky souvenirs - no Nightwatch cake tin and that kind of stuff. Instead, the question was: how can you distil the real value from the historical artefacts and translate it into contemporary products? I think it resulted in some interesting objects.’

Skype & Souvenirs

Apparently the Taiwanese Craft Research Institute, an agency of the Council for Cultural Affairs, thought so as well, as it hired Bakker again for the creation of its new design brand Yii. The starting point is quite similar: it's again about combining contemporary design and traditional Chinese crafts without slipping into the banality of souvenirs. It's not about showing to the world how beautifully the Chinese can lacquer, carve and engrave. ‘We really wanted to create products which everyone can use.’ The Craft Research Institute made a shortlist of about 30 designers, from which Bakker picked 16. ‘In May I spent a week in Taiwan, doing workshops with the designers and craftsmen, where we developed the first ideas. After that, we communicated via Skype. In fact, it was an intense coaching process, which went much further than just curating,’ recalls Bakker. The designers had no precise briefing, but could design freely whatever they liked. With these products as a first collection, Yii, which means change and transformation in Chinese, is supposed to become a real design label. Of course the fact that it's entirely financed by the Taiwanese state makes it a marketing tool rather than a commercial brand. But one has to give an affirmative nod to the Taiwanese in that it's a very well-timed marketing tool, entering the stage just at the moment when the design world has rediscovered the value of traditional crafts as well as the charms of the authentic and the local.

‘The biggest challenge was the difference in mentality. I didn't want to involve any Western designers, because that always results in a kind of colonialism,’ Bakker says. ‘But Taiwanese society is very hierarchical, and people don't just say what they think. It took a while, but I think in the end I managed to make some of the designers open up a bit.’ The results of the collaboration are real hybrids: at first sight, they appear quite Chinese, due to their aesthetics and the crafts involved. But as soon as one hears the stories behind them, it becomes clear that there's also a big influence of Dutch conceptualism, and in some cases even Dutch humour. 

Repetition of Actions

Every item in the collection tells a story, from the bamboo seat that will disappear entirely under silk, spun around it by silk worms, to the black bowl with a very cute rabbit-shaped handle, which relates to a Chinese legend about the rabbit and the moon. The leitmotif, however, seems to be the combination of conceptualism, craftsmanship and an aesthetic that balances between the ornamental and the minimal. And it's not just a one-project theme for Bakker. ‘I just read Richard Sennett's book about craft with my students at the Design Academy in Eindhoven,’ he says. ‘It's fascinating: he defines craft as a repetition of actions that generates skill. It applies to all professions, but our society completely disesteems it.’  In this context, one can't help but think of Hella Jongerius and her Ikea-vases, which are cheaply mass-produced in China thanks to the affordability and high quality of manual labour. After all, that's another Dutch designer gone East and working with local craftspeople. ‘Yii has nothing to do with that!’ Bakker exclaims when asked. ‘For a start, Taiwan isn't as cheap as China. We do want to have some affordable items in the collection, but there will also be one-offs and limited editions. Then again, I have to admit that Hella was among the first to rediscover the values of craftsmanship, long before anybody else did.’ In an ironic twist that might be the Taiwanese answer to Jongerius, Ikea does actually make an appearance in the Yii-collection. Designer Pili Wu has pimped standard Ikea-products with craft elements

Dry Humour

One of the Taiwanese designers, though, seems to refer just as much to Dutch as to Asian culture with his product. With the help of stonemason Pei-ze Chen, designer Rock Wan created an undulated and incredibly smooth tray out of brick. It wouldn't be Bakker's project if there wasn't a good story behind it: ‘Did you know that the Dutch introduced bricks to Taiwan in the 17th century?’ he asks. ‘Before the Dutch came, the Taiwanese built their houses out of clay blocks. For his tray, Rock Wan made a block of bricks, and then let the stonemason cut the tray out of it and polish it. I never knew that brick could have such a beautiful, smooth structure!’ adds Bakker, visibly fascinated. So even though Bakker refused to add a product of his own to the collection (‘I didn't want to disturb the picture’), his presence can clearly be felt   from the conceptual approach to the dry sense of humour, right down to a brick tray that even teaches the Dutch something about their favourite material.

www.gijsbakker.com