Design Map · Eindhoven
Soft Resistance
Graduation project by Maria Kilian at Design Academy Eindhoven, 2026. Shown during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven on Design Map, location F5.
Across several large black-and-white tapestries hanging side by side, geometric lines give way to soft gradients and irregular edges. The wool seems caught between being carefully arranged and taking on a shape of its own. Maria Kilian works with this tension by combining pre-felted and wet-felted wool, allowing the material’s behaviour to influence the final form. It shrinks by around 30 per cent during wet felting, so even a precisely laid line comes out crooked.
Maria Kilian sees a parallel with how we try to impose order on the natural world: we may want to build a straight road, but a mountain can force us to change its course. She is curious whether this need for control is useful or harmful, noting that geometric order can offer a sense of safety. Rather than resolving that question, the work stages it: an ongoing negotiation between what the designer intends and what the wool allows.