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What happens when you let nine contemporary artists dive into an archive of over 10,000 design drawings? At Museum Jan Cunen, the visual legacy of the former Bergoss carpet factory forms the starting point for a dynamic and colorful exhibition. In According to Fixed Patterns, past and present come together in a vibrant celebration of rhythm, repetition, and reinterpretation.
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Curator
Merel van den Nieuwenhof
Graphic Design
Dana Dijkgraaf
Spatial Design
Merel van den Nieuwenhof and Dana Dijkgraaf
Photography
Loek Blonk, Emmy de Graaf and Dana Dijkgraaf
Printed matter
Artiprint

Concept
Bergoss, once a thriving carpet manufacturer in Oss, produced hand-drawn pattern designs from the 1920s to the 1980s — a treasure trove of artistic ingenuity and industrial craft. These hundreds of drawings, full of grids, geometry, and bold experiments, reflect the style of their time and the precision of carpet design. Artists Yeşim Akdeniz, Sigrid Calon, Maartje Folkeringa, Christie van der Haak, Fransje Killaars, Bas Kosters, Esmee Seebregts, Kar Hang Mui, and Sjimmie Veenhuis were invited to respond freely to this rich archive. Their new works echo the patterns and colors of the past while reimagining them through their personal perspectives and artistic fascinations.

What did we make?
Together with Museum Jan Cunen, we designed an exhibition identity rooted in the language of carpet design. The exhibition texts are placed on a grid structure — a direct reference to the original pattern paper. Text panels hang from large cardboard yarn tubes, once used in the Bergoss and Desso production lines, now repurposed as colorful carriers of each artist’s visual voice. Each space has its own palette and rhythm, shaped by the artist’s style, creating a vibrant walk through decades of design and fresh artistic interpretation.

Two fonts were used throughout the exhibition: a bold, patterned display type based on grid structures for titles, and the typewriter-inspired ‘Underground’ for body text. Even the museum’s glass façade and balcony became part of the installation, with large-scale window graphics and 3D-printed patterns attracting visitors before they even step inside.

Sparkles
The exhibition sparkles with layered connections between past and present. Over 10,000 original pattern drawings became a source of inspiration for the artists, unlocking a visual archive full of rhythm and invention. Yarn tubes donated by Desso, once used to hold spools of thread, now serve as colorful carriers for the exhibition’s stories, linking the artworks directly to the factory floor. The museum itself becomes a living canvas: vibrant window graphics and 3D-printed patterns on the glass façade pull visitors in from the outside. Inside, each space is an explosion of color, texture, and transformation. According to Fixed Patterns is a joyful tribute to the grid as both structure and freedom where history repeats, shifts, and dances into something entirely new.

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