diseño merricano

NEL is a collective of designers who join forces to explore, through concept and form, the interaction in design between traditional materials and techniques, and new processes or unusual applications.

A rug shaped after the map of Iraq features soldiers advancing from many direction into Bagdad. Through newspapers and television, the image of Iraq is continuously depicted with graphics similar to board games and action figures, giving it a game-like dimension which somehow shifts the character of the war. The rug, with cute little felt soldiers walking on a soft and warm surface, denounces this confusion, and the way in which the tragic reality of war is somehow diluted by using these images.

Three characters disappear from large, solid white blocks, and their absence suddenly makes them important. The resulting emptiness is filled with the user's belongings and through this action the silhouettes' meaning shifts. The pieces suggest a continuous play between interaction and representation, where daily use generates a continuously changing story: a cat that reads Italo Calvino, a book filled with coins, a living room where birds come to eat the cake's crumbles…