Bulky trash, waste, cheap materials: pure gold!

At least in the eyes of many active designers. Pure gold – Upcycled! Upgraded! explores the subject of rubbish and presents approaches to using existing trash to create valuable products.

Global industrialisation and ever greater levels of consumption make upcycling an urgent matter, and ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) is therefore addressing this issue in a design exhibition, a platform, workshops and conferences. The cornerstones of this project are ethics, responsibility, internationalisation and co-creation.

The Pure gold exhibition consists of two complementary parts: the physical and material exhibition and the virtual platform as a space for dialogue, discussion and the storage of knowledge.

The materials used in the presented examples are nearly all easily available anywhere and more or less “free” – and yet they are often seen as trash with little value. The same is true for the techniques used to rework them, the artisanal knowhow that in many cases is based on traditional methods and bears the stain of the backward.

The aim of our exhibition is to disarm all the bad names that reuse has, and to achieve a new notion of raw materials and thus also a new appreciation of these products.

Working with seven curators from Europe, Latin America, North Africa and the Near East, East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, ifa has brought together 76 exhibits and a total of 53 designers for the exhibition, where they present added value and appreciation within many diverse contexts.

The workshops that take place at the international touring exhibition venues with local designer and maker scenes offer results in the shape of instructables on the platform, as a further level for discussion and knowledge. Further information and materials on the workshop themes will be added.

At every venue of the tour, ifa also invites local designers to show their works together with Pure gold.