Commissioned by MAXXI, National Museum National Museum of XXI Century Arts for the exhibition Design Destinations, Retools has the intent of presenting, in an institutional context such as the MAXXI, two creative realities, which are often considered marginal, one in Holland and one in Italy. Retools highlights how these places are a starting point for the creation of valid and real alternatives to the contemporary system of values and production.

The presented tools have been manufactured partly in Holland in Section-C and partly in Italy in the Officine Zero. They attempt to open a window on these two creative realities, while underlining analogy and differences – and demonstrating how from the ashes of a dated production system, a new shared and local maker culture, is rising. A making culture that doesn’t limit itself to produce consumptive goods, but rather on the contrary produce and spread ideas and ways of living. From here the act of realising – together with whom we live to make those spaces possible – a series of basic tools for building: hammer, saw and screwdriver. Simple, basic, emblematic tools – that if used in the right way are all we need to start building a new model for the future life we hope for. Together with the tools a publication was presented that document the life and the projects that animate those two realities.