Manon van Hoeckel designs encounters. As a social designer, Van Hoeckel develops tools that encourage strangers to chat to each other. She did precisely the same in her ‘wassalon’, or launderette, which was part of the ‘Change the System’ exhibition in Boijmans Van Beuningen. The laundry was disruptive, questioned the role of the museum and brought together different target groups. In ‘Limbo Embassy’ – a travelling embassy for refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants – Van Hoeckel gives refugees the role of ambassadors, thus showing the refugee issue in an entirely new light. With her ‘Making Money’ project, she investigates how undocumented refugees can or should contribute to society.

Manon van Hoeckel’s work responds to the disappearance of the conversation in public space, in politics and between different groups in our society. She addresses this theme by creating design interventions that require a systemic change that ranges beyond product solutions. Van Hoeckel reveals the transformative power of art and design in a completely natural way. In her social design projects, she always asks topical, relevant questions, for which she formulates original solutions.