TEST PRESS exhibition presents students publications from the archive of designer, collector and teacher Henk Groenendijk. Allworks have been produced by students of the Amsterdam “Gerrit Rietveld “Academie over the past 20 years – 1999-2019.

They emphasize the transition between what was called "Dutch Design" at the end of the 90s and the increasing openness and international orientation against a superimposed, national style. The archive consists of over 500 publications (individual pieces or in small prints) and encompasses a wide variety of methods, aesthetics and topics from language to typography to contemporary visual culture.

For the exhibition Riet Wijnen (artist and curator), Lies Ros (former member of the design studio Wild Plakken)  Åbäke (Design collective , London/Paris), Kate Banar and Orin Bristow were invited to make their own selection from the archive.

The exhibition was initiated in collaboration with the Palace of Typographic Masonry and has already been shown in the Netherlands, France and Kosovo.

Henk Groenendijk is married to Bulgarian artist Dima Stefanova and they have been organizing for years creative workshops and summer schools in Bulgaria for design students.

More from Henk Groenendijk in an interview with BNR’s Assia Chaneva:

Photos: Goethe institute