ARCHIVE OF THE UNBROKEN
#Exhibition #WorkshopPartners: Ziyi Lian (Researcher)
Supported by Cocosmos / Trudo / Stimuleringfonds
Presented in Matchbox during Dutch Design Week. Behind the Unbroken Workshop run on 25th October 2025.
(NL)
From precise mends to absurd improvisations, social designers Daniela Tokashiki and Ziyi Lian have developed an archive of repaired objects that reimagines brokenness as a beginning.
What if “broken” is only the first act to design? Here, you are invited to step into a living repair workshop. Inspired by the informal, grassroots repair cultures we grew up with, the exhibition re-examines the definition and approach of repair in a situated context. Starting from ceramic repair techniques, we explore its spectrum across materials. From exoticized traditional techniques to improvised local substitutes, from practical mends to playful tease of functionality. In doing so, we see repair not only out of ecological concerns or scarcity, but as a manifestation of everyday agency, where ingenuity, imagination, and resilience emerge through objects that wear their histories openly.
During DDW25, we hosted an experimental “repair” workshop at Matchbox. For two hours, we collectively worked to reflect on the evaluation of repair labor and how repair culture may be de-marginalized in a consumerist society. Instead of practicing exquisite or hardcore repair techniques, creative repair techniques were experimented on broken ceramics, challenging the conventional definition of repair. Through role-play, hands-on material exploration, and discussion, the workshop proposed a re-examination of repair practice in the contemporary context.
Visit the DDW25 digital archive ☞HERE
Read an article by In the Buurt Eindhoven about the exhibition ☞HERE
We are currently looking to develop this project even further with the support of Cultuur Eindhoven. If you would like to contribute or collaborate as a supporting institution, ☞GET IN TOUCH;)