The internationally-acclaimed designer presents his Personal Editions collection and delivers the fair's opening keynote on 14 March.

Marcel Wanders’s exclusive collection of limited edition pieces combines traditional crafts and industrial processes and pushes the boundaries of functional and non-functional, of art and design.

Marcel Wanders, One Minute Delft Blue: Tulip Vase

Marcel said: “With this collection, in this region specifically, I wanted to include work that celebrates humankind and highlights durability, warmth and imperfection. Handcrafted techniques and a sense of ornamentation dominate this collection and offer more surprise for both myself and those who experience it.”

Marcel Wanders, Personal Editions: Bon Bon Chair

Co-founder of the successful design label Moooi and with over 1700+ projects to his name for private clients and premium brands, Marcel’s work is known to excite, provoke and surprise for its ingenuity, daring and quest to uplift the human spirit and entertain. One of his most recent projects in the region includes the soon-to-open Mondrian Doha.

Marcel Wanders, Rijks, Masters of the Golden Age: The Milkmaid

“We are thrilled to welcome Marcel Wanders to this edition of Design Days Dubai. Marcel will be introducing some of his most iconic pieces to the Middle East and his presence will surely inspire some of our young design talents who will be taking part in the fair’s public programme and initiatives such as Van Cleef & Arpel’s Middle East Emergent Designer Prize and Dubai Culture and d3’s Urban Commissions, ” said Cyril Zammit, fair director of Design Days Dubai.

Amongst the Personal Editions collection will be the iconic ‘Golden Knotted Chair’ from a limited edition of twenty pieces which Marcel designed in 2009. The extraordinary chair has become a much-cited example of the integration of craft with technology. Pieces from the ‘Bon Bon’ collection (2010), a collection structurally made from rope which has been ‘crocheted’ and reinforced with resin and precious metal; Marcel’s quirky take on classic Dutch blue-and-white Delftware porcelain, the hand-painted ‘One Minute Delft’ collection (2006); and a unique entirely hand-crafted art edition of the Rijks, Masters of the Golden Age (hardback, 2016) complete the show-stopping booth.

Marcel Wanders keynote on 14 March, 'On the Crossroads between Art and Design', marks the launch of the Pop Up Academy. The brainchild of Esra Lemmens, a rising figure in the design industry, lecturer and ambassador of contemporary design, Pop Up Academy will coincide with the world's leading design events, kicking off in Dubai.

Esra, who has also collaborated with Marcel Wanders on the exhibition, said "Designers organising their own courses is a natural movement in design education since 'the school' and 'design practice' don't exist anymore. Pop Up Academy deals with these changes as, at the crossroads between art and design, the industry increasingly deals with made-to-measure concepts; so design education should reflect this, as well as the unique characteristics of each design event".