Marcel Douwe Dekker

Marcel Douwe Dekker (Delft, 1964) is a Dutch systems engineer, artist and designer.
Biography
Marcel Douwe Dekker was born in 1964 in Delft, Holland and studied mechanical engineering at the Delft University of Technology from 1984 to 1991. During 1986-87 he worked as practicum assistant materials science, and as a photographer in Blijdorp zoo. After learning about the systems theory practice as assistant professor in 1987-88, he specialized in business economics and systems engineering and received a Master's degree at the Delft University of Technology in 1991. Realizing that a further career in industry had never appealed to him, he proceeded studying visual arts at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam for one year.
In April 1991 he started working as conceptual artist and designer. Starting with his own fascination about life, he focused on developing some concepts into a range of artistic products: from sketches, drawings, pictures and notes, to sculptures, interior objects and multimedia installations.
In 1992, he had his first exhibitions in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, but by the end of that year he was almost broke. So he started working as a waiter, as a night porter in a homeless shelter, and as a construction builder to rebuild Hotel New York in Rotterdam. Eventually he ended up as an exhibition builder in the Kunsthal, started designing again, was chief engineer in the Kunsthal for six weeks, and then went back to his art and design.
In 1994, he received a Dutch design award for his spider light. The jury praised the resourceful use of industrial fabricated materials.
At the year-end he had an overview exibition in the Haagse Kunstkring, the oldest art society in The Hague. Some of his work became internationally known, and Douwe Dekker sold some thousands of his design objects world-widely until 1999.
From 1994 on he has been developing his own philosophy and theory about Civilization and Science.

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