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Formafantasma – Oltre Terra, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2025. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
Taking wool far beyond a material definition, Formafantasma presents the development of wool extraction and production as a starting point for their ongoing research into the intricate relations between humans, animals, and the environment. Their commitment to a new direction and vision in design through exhibitions, research projects, and teaching aims to foster a deeper understanding of both the natural and the human-made environment. Their holistic perspective, also present in earlier projects such as Cambio (2020) and Ore Streams (2017), allows them to be much more critical and inventive “in ways that go beyond the products and the object, and infiltrate the way the object is produced, recycled, or distributed.”1 Instead of seeing design simply as a series of stylistic operations, it becomes a more fundamental, more encompassing, understanding of the relations in interactions between humans and the world.
Formafantasma – Oltre Terra, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2025. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
As Curator-in-Training, I was mostly interested in how this project compellingly combines research, objects, and installation design into one exhibition. Therefore, I would like to elaborate on my experience of the production of the exhibition and discuss the intricate installation, the role of the designers and curator, and zoom in on some objects.
Firstly, the visitor won’t encounter a traditional white cube with paintings spread out over the walls or objects on plinths when visiting Oltre Terra. Instead, the installation is centered in the lower-level gallery and effectively becomes the entire exhibition. It presents a variety of objects, ranging from archaeological woolen artifacts and historical banknotes to shearing tools and video projections. The eight sections, or chapters, of the installation aim to collaboratively create a holistic story, exposing various aspects of our relationship with wool, sheep, and nature. Every part is accompanied by texts on metal plates, written by philosopher Emanuele Coccia. These texts provide an interpretation of the objects and elaborate on their interrelations.
The argument for the holistic perspective is strengthened in the design of the intricate installation. The exhibition’s design presents itself as a critique on the diorama, as can be found in natural history museums. The diorama—a staged scene of a natural habitat or ecosystem—is usually observed from one perspective and sometimes includes a separation between the audience and the staged scene, like glass or a cord. However, in Oltre Terra, the installation doesn’t present a natural habitat and the audience is not restricted to one perspective. Instead, visitors are invited to fully walk around the metal, grid-like installation, and are even able to enter its center. Walking along the eight sections, you can overlook the installation from different viewpoints and encounter the varied perspectives of each section’s research. Finally, when you enter the installation’s center, you will find a comfortable seat on the woolen carpet by Formafantasma and CC-tapis, from where you can watch the video Tactile Afferents (2023) by Joanna Piotrowska and Formafantasma. This way, the design of the installation quite literally offers different perspectives on all material presented in the open space. Additionally, the grid-like structure of the installation also allows for easy assembly and compact transport. Working as sustainably as possible regarding the message of the exhibition and the intensifying environmental crisis of today becomes an imperative for Formafantasma.
Furthermore, for the realization of this exhibition, the studio needed to select the objects, conduct research, and create the narrative to collaboratively establish an understanding of our entangled relationship with the natural world. Since the intricate installation covers the full exhibition, this meant that the Formafantasma team, in a way, became curators for the exhibition: researching and configuring the content and designing the display. Additionally, since the exhibition was initially produced for the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, the team had already established much of the content before coming to Amsterdam. Some sections could remain the same, while other parts had to be adjusted to the Dutch context to become relevant for the Stedelijk Museum.
Formafantasma – Oltre Terra, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2025. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
Therefore, Stedelijk curator Amanda Pinatih (and I) acted more as mediators and facilitators, trying to provide as much support to the Formafantasma team as possible for the research into the Dutch context and ensuring alignment between the studio’s vision and the Stedelijk team’s efforts. For example, to prepare for the research, we organized visits to the Rijksprentenkabinet, TextielMuseum Tilburg, and Museum de Lakenhal in Leiden, as well as to shepherd Michiel Poelenije, with his flock of 250 Drenthe Heath Sheep. These visits were vital for retrieving specialized knowledge about the history of wool, the wool industry in the Netherlands, and the practice of the shepherd nowadays. With sample books from the TextielMuseum and laken loodjes from the Lakenhal included in the exhibition, the research extends and connects to the cultural history of the Netherlands.
So, the combination of objects in this exhibition is extremely varied and perhaps curious for a modern and contemporary art and design museum. Some objects on display may seem mundane in comparison to what you might expect from the Stedelijk. Section four, for example, presents official documents such as the regulatory statements of the European Parliament and the European Council regarding wool disposal and waste treatment. In the same section, large bales of shredded and recycled wool show the interesting product of the recycling practices of the Manteco company in Prato, Italy. While the documents have a more evidentiary role as part of the research and demonstrate the complex bureaucracy that has been established in our relation with wool, the recycled bales visualize opportunities for the future and other ways to engage with wool that go beyond the clothing industry. The bales can be turned into yarn again, or repurposed as acoustic panels and upholstery. In section eight, the carpet designed by Formafantasma and produced by CC-tapis has a double function. It is made of the wool from twelve different Italian sheep breeds that are normally neglected due to the coarseness of the fibers, making their wool unsuitable for clothing. By incorporating these twelve types of different wool, the designers are visualizing and imagining alternative uses for wool with thicker fibers, while at the same time offering a more comfortable area to sit and watch the video Tactile Afferents. Lastly, when you arrive at the final section and sit down to rest on the carpet, it is just delightful to finally be allowed to touch some wool after reading all about it throughout the exhibition.
Formafantasma – Oltre Terra, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2025. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
To conclude, I think Oltre Terra, as both design research and exhibition, is a compelling example of the role of design in our entangled environments, and the designer’s responsibility to look beyond the borders of the discipline. The design studio transcends a disciplinary approach by bringing together the different contexts of wool and elaborating on the drivers behind the evolving relations between humans, animals, and nature. Instead of the exhibition becoming an oversaturated accumulation of information and a strange collection of objects, Formafantasma manages to engage and integrate various objects, disciplines, and perspectives into a sleek installation. The objects, texts, and design collaboratively explain the complex and designed relations between humans and nonhumans. Using wool as a starting point brings a fresh perspective and creates space to break through existing thought patterns and explain how humans have carefully designed the environment and their relation to it through concrete examples. Lastly, with objects such as the woolen carpet, the studio manages to imagine and shape ideas into tangible objects. This entire installation visualizes an abstract idea, which in turn allows for a better understanding and discussion of its complex interrelations.
Of course, complex issues cannot be solved in a single project, exhibition, or step, and especially not when they are confined within the walls of an institution and presented to a selective audience. Many more steps, in different directions and on multiple levels, are needed to move toward a reconciliation of humanity’s relationship with nature, or to induce impactful systemic change overall. Yet, I think Oltre Terra is a step in the right direction in terms of communicating our entangled realities, as well as a great example of why a holistic and interdisciplinary perspective is crucial in order to design the world in a sustainable manner.
About the Author
Victor Nieuwenhuizen is a master’s student in Curating Art and Cultures at the University of Amsterdam and the Vrije Universteit Amsterdam combined and was involved in the Formafantasma exhibition as a Curator-in-Training.
