OMVORMVERDEEL-FABRIEK

A chair, a table, a bench, a stool, no owner but an abandoned house. What actually happens with stuff we do not need anymore? The things that have been left in abandoned houses because of death, illness, divorce or bankruptcy. Sometimes they end up in recycling centers, but much more often just to the landfill.

Omvormverdeelfabriek Estate Bank, an initiative of Joost Gehem, offers a solution for abandoned furniture. This "factory" grinds your belongings into a usable raw material. A raw material that is compressed in a new form. In this way "old" furniture gets a new shape.

I think the Omvormverdeelfabriek can not only transform our stuff into new products. But this idea also allows us to see how we deal with our possessions. In former times there was often a special story behind our furniture. Think of a dressing table, obtained as dowry, passed down generation after generation. Now it's different, things are more easily thrown away if it has no value at all.

Which role does our stuff actually have within social relationships? Don't we attach value to the bed in which our child grew up or the chair in which his grandfather spend his last days? Do we exchange our stuff without feeling for newer products? It seems that we are in an era where the social aspect and our possessions are totally separated.