Gold Prize: Straw straw /Name of designer: Yuki Iida (Japan)
"Found" means picking out that special something in objects by altering context and finding new applications for them. That is to say, what is called into question in the capacity for making choices in terms of rediscovering things that already exist. MUJI AWARD is not just a competition of ideas with the expectation of "producing them on a commercial basis". The grand prize and every other prize decided serve to act as verification of the thought, the idea that MUJI sheds light on things in such a manner. In this respect, I believe that works symbolic of this were chosen.
The gold award-winning straw caught me off guard. Because in times past, "straw" was just that - straw. But wheat straw was replaced with synthetic materials, with an accordion section that allowed it to be bent at will, while the tip was fashioned into a small spoon; and so with this excess of functions, the central meaning started to diverge. And so it was that we came to completely forget the "originality" inherent in straw. The shock of the real beginning of something having been "Found" being "Found" once again. That's what our assessment focused on here.
