1.The future, it is known, has yet to happen. However, more often then not it is used by various agencies to promote their agendas – be it economic, social or political ones. Will the world end in an ecological catastrophe in a few decades? Will we live on Mars? Will the immigration crisis change geo-political scenarios? Will we require new nutritional sources? highlighting a certain future narrative – be it bright or dark – directs our actions today, as citizens, consumers and users. The truth is, if we have learned anything these past two years, it is that the future is in essence unpredictable. Therefore we need to face the known and near on one hand, while planning mechanisms that flex beyond the foreseeable future on the other – to stop, observe and plan objects that freely move forwards and backwards in time. In other words, objects that are designed for an ongoing preset.

2. The past, it is known, has already happened. Its course determined by the systems of culture, morality, customs and economy of each era. Those vanish in time, leaving traces and fragments to be found in street names, uncovered earthwares, in customs, writings and memories – culture molded into tools and ceremonies. None of those tell a full story, yet put together, they can weave dozens of different narratives. what if we ask design to take the role of the anthropologist, and replace deep time for short time? to prepare and plan for an ongoing present, we must first examine it – in the place our daily habits, ceremonies, objects and spaces take in our lives. To look at the now, so we can design for it.

3. We can never be fully prepared for what is to come, and it seems our desire to predict our future needs and design for them becomes ever more impossible. However, there are responsibilities that can no longer be overlooked. The designer, it seems, requires a new type of thinking – not one that focuses on the end product, but one focused on process and infrastructure. These are required to be elastic enough to move forward without leaving a trace – to give up history for the integrity of the future.

Go for Broke focuses on findings and inventions; objects and their stories, situated in the dialogue between archeology and design. For the archaeologist, ruins are an essential starting point that yields great finds and knowledge. Together, they lay the foundations for unfolding the past. However, the recounted past is only as good as the quality of the discoveries that attest to it. The past is therefore an evolving story constructed over time, and can change according to the accumulated knowledge concerning its nature. Archaeological artifacts are classified according to their degree of integrity: a whole object; a fractured object indicative of the whole; and a fragment which does not necessarily reflect the whole. The findings carry fragmented information – some completely destroyed, others collected innocently, or otherwise stolen – and their quality is measured by the knowledge they impart. The archaeologist seeks to uncover the concealed information regarding the whole object, revealed by one or more of its individual parts. In a sense, both the archaeologist and the designer are engaged in nothingness, driven by the attempt to find and pinpoint it based on accumulated knowledge; The former gazes into the past, while the latter strives to understand how existing objects may be altered, clarified, and renewed. Go for Broke employs archeological practices to offer insight about fragments and the whole through a prism of design, exploring  the past in the form of a new object. Comprising three areas, the exhibition presents archaeological artifacts on loan from the Israel Antiquities Authority, alongside new works by various artists and designers, created in response to the nature of archeology; fundamentally scientific, it is actually based on and fostered by hypotheses. The fragment, in its various senses, is the starting point for design through the questions it raises, the solutions it provides, and primarily through countless hypotheses that range from an unusable mound of pottery, to a complete, coveted treasure.