Gordijn and Nauta founded DRIFT in 2007, two years after having both graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven. With a multi-disciplinary team of over 60, they work on experiential sculptures, installations and performances that explore scenarios for the future, illuminating the parallels between man-made and natural structures through deconstructive, interactive and innovative processes.
The studio is famed for, among others, its Fragile Future artwork, a multidisciplinary lighting sculpture in which multiple dandelion seeds are fixed to LED lights, giving each bulb a flower-like appearance. The work comes to life in dialogue with its surroundings, creating space for presence and a renewed sense of connection to the planet.
DRIFT’s work has been exhibited by institutions such as MUSAC, Milwaukee Art Museum, Chiostro del Bramante, Palazzo Strozzi, LUMA Foundation, Central Park New York, Centre Pompidou, The Shed NYC, Stedelijk Museum, Art Basel and Victoria & Albert Museum, amongst others. Their work can be found in the permanent collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Centre Pompidou and Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt.
The duo has won various awards for Fragile Future, including 1st Prize by Stichting ArtiParti in 2006 and the international Lights of the Future prize by the German Design Council. In 2010, their Concrete Chandelier won a prize at the Moët-Hennessy Pavilion of Art and Design. They won 1st Prize at ZomerExpo held at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag in the Netherlands and Finest Light Sculpture at Biennale Interieur in Kortrijk, Belgium. Their work Flylight was awarded the Arte Laguna Prize in Venice in 2014. More recently, they were selected as Designer of the Year at the Dezeen Awards in 2019 for their work Franchise Freedom.
