A Slow Parade is a virtual design show featuring the work of 22 designers. Berry Dijkstra curated a spatial composition in which furniture, design items, and objects are presented, stacked, and carefully arranged into a sculptural installation that is independent of functionality. The film, directed by From Form and shot on 16mm, combines the world of contemporary design with classic cinema, and brings an ode to the role of title design in film, with an eerie soundtrack scored by Anne Müller and Ben Lukas Boysen.
The core of the film is a furniture composition by Berry Dijkstra. Due to Covid19, the composition is created in the safety of his house. His own collection of cabinets and pillars form the grid of the installation. For A Slow Parade, Berry selected the work of 22 designers which is an explosion of shapes, materials, textures, colors, and techniques. Dripping glass next to polished ceramics. A vase of liquid steel and acrylic with the aesthetic of glass. Low tech versus high tech, whimsical shapes combined with minimalist objects. The way of presenting by stacking, carefully arranging, combining different shapes, materials, techniques, and bringing all together into a sculptural installation is characteristic of his work.
For A slow parade, Berry Dijkstra worked together with From Form; a Rotterdam-based film and design studio founded by Ashley Govers and Jurjen Versteeg. A Slow Parade is directed by From Form and shot on 16mm film. Using the power of cinema in which time, sound, movement, and typography are used to reveal and present the furniture installation and the work of 22 designers. From Form uses a title sequence as the frame for the film, which is a form that has been used since the early days of cinema to the names of the creators and set the tone for the film that follows. Only at A Slow Parade, there is no film, the focus shifts to the presentation of objects and the designers in a hypnotic title sequence full of references to classical cinema and a splash of horror.