EXHIBITION

With Apparatus 22 (Erika Olea, Dragos Olea, Maria Farcas), Veronika Bjarsch, Jenny Brosinski, Juliane Götz, Carmen Raffaela Küster, Yael Mer & Shay Alkalay, Sybille Neumeyer, Thomas Pausz, Laura Strasser, Thomas Thwaites and Alan Worn  
 
Since October 2011, fourteen designers have been working on the notion of design. Together with Stefano Mirti (juror for design 2011/2013) they have been exploring fourteen different ways to communicate their understanding of design. It is not about the creation of a product but rather a discussion about what design can be and where it can lead us. The visitors of the opening are asked to bring an object of their choice. It should be an object that they like and that has a special meaning to them. The designers will also provide 10 to 12 objects each which will be presented and later on offered for exchange. All in all about 120 objects will be classified into different categories. .

The visitors can choose one of the categories, but they won’t know concretely for which object they will trade their own. While the objects are being preprared, the visitors can get familiar with the various other design projects on view. At the end of the evening the exchange takes place. All objects brought by the visitors remain part of the exhibition. 

---

Further design projects on view: 
 
Apparatus 22 (Erika Olea, Dragos Olea, Maria Farcas)
»Fitting not (Room One)«
A series consisting of three installations, »Fitting not« unveils moments of truth which could surface from the cracks of the blueprint-of-enhanced-reality, the fitting room of a fashion store. The capsule-like fitting rooms resemble the escapist settings of luxury shopping tours. Room One looks at the over and under-use of language in fashion, starting at a particular rendering of the future, as imagined and offered by the fashion and beauty industry. Texts appropriated from editorial features of online fashion magazines or slogans used by clothing & cosmetics megabrands are rewritten to past tense.
Urgency becomes obsolescent with such a simple, but subversive shift of time; reinterpreted and corrupted, the emotional investment intensively demanded initially quickly fades away and opens up perspectives for a dreamlike – spatial and nostalgic –, yet productive critique of the future which is depicted all around us by the communication efforts of the fashion system.

Veronika Bjarsch
»Pipe Dream« (Brass, plywood, steel)
»A Fool’s Paradise« (Poplin, wadding, thread)
The salons of Schloss Solitude and their still existing interiors and patinas reflect centuries of people and time passed. Solitude walls have seen a lot. Built as a summer palace, a place for pure pleasure, later on a military hospital, even a prison and now home of the Akademie Schloss Solitude: if these walls could talk, what stories of night and day might they reveal? With this in mind, Veronika Bjarsch constructed a table and two benches which imitate the same kind of patina seen in the hallways of the castle. The brass oxidizes, the paint of the asymmetrical base chips off, and the plywood top welcomes reoccurring traces of wine and coffee stains. Solitude has in the past been a place for celebrations and still it’s a place for coming together around a table, to meet, get to know each other and to share ideas or food. Therefore, Bjarsch has not only focused on the immediate materiality of the surroundings, but instead has chosen to create pieces with a communal character, social furniture rather than objects for introspection and research.

Jenny Brosinski
»Solitude« – lettercase with bellybuttons 75×50 cm 
»Humantalk« – oil on stretched canvas 135×150 cm

Juliane Götz
»Serie grau«
Fashion can only unfold its actual form on the human body. The three seemingly classical, floor-length evening gowns do not any longer need the human as a wearer but solely as a perceiver. While oneself is reduced to the role oft he observer, the dresses obtain functions and characteristics that are usually reserved for living beings and thus question the relationship of men and fashion.

»Serie schwarz«
In classical fashion design a relation between the designer and the wearer of a garment does no longer exist. »Serie schwarz« attempts to reestablish this relation: the perceptions and wishes of the future wearer are taken into account and only in close collaboration with the designer the dress can be realized. The main focus remains on the individual as well as on the  origination process of the garment. It is made visible through conversations, drafts, work processes, patterns and prototypes. 

Carmen Raffaela Küster
»Circus Revolution«
There is another form of circus which has nothing to do with sequins, sawdust-smell and »hey-hop« screaming »strong man competitions«. In the vision of nouveau cirque, circus is an art form. The performance of the human body is central, »new circus« artists make use of elements from dance, theater, mime and other related performance arts, combining them with traditional circus disciplines such as juggling and trapeze. »Circus Revolution« shows some of my own work in the field of nouveau cirque, and calls attention to this widely ignored and under-exposed art form.

Yael Mer & Shay Alkalay
»Soft Igloo«
A foldable soft structure made out of the very common foam sheets that are being used for upholstery and mattresses. While working on an armchair project Yael Mer realized how much fun it it to work with these polyurethane foam sheets, the material usually being disguised under fabrics. Its beauty is generally not being considered. Her »Soft Igloo« celebrates  the qualities she found in the foam; its bendiness, its softness, its translucency, the pleasing way that a cutting knife scores it, and its acoustic properties. And not to forget the constant change of color, from bright white to yellow-ish and eventually brown…
The form of the igloo is a continuation of Yael Mer’s interest in creating three-dimensional forms out of flexible flat material. Visitors are invited to step inside for hopefully some relaxing moments.  
 
»Circular Railway«
A model railway set in a circular track and placed on a revolving surface. The surface spins in synchronised speed but in counter direction to the train, it leaves the train running while staying in place. 

Sybille Neumeyer
»Kabinett Laboratorium«
The »Cabinet Laboratory« is set up as an intersection between a »Cabinet of Curiosities« and a laboratory.  The approach of collecting and representing is combined with a poetical reflection and the implementation of scientific methodology in visual processes. Influenced by her interest in biology, archaeology, botanical and geological studies, Sybille Neumeyer creates her own classifications and transformations of objects within the working space and her work process, blurring the borders between fictional, poetical and science-based knowledge. This microcosmic collection of artifacts builds the soil for speculations about science, nature, visual research and more. 

 Thomas Pausz
»INTELLIGENCE STARTS WITH THE FEET. Design is Gymnastics«
(Part 2 of the series elastic editions | design enquiries published quarterly)
We ask what would have happened if Raymond Duncan and Otl Aicher had founded a design studio together: autonomy, irreverance and visual gymnastics. We interview a reformed art student who chose to study the sporty craft of stone carving in London. We look at printing as an Olympic discipline to cure digital fatigue.
Contributors: Ruby Sumner, Nicole Alghieri, Raymond Duncan, Orson Welles, Thomas Pausz. 
With the friendly support of the Institut français / Ministére de la Culture et de la Communication (MCC)

Laura Straßer
»With Love from China«
China is the birthplace of porcelain. That valuable and wonderful material reached Europe via the Silk Route, unleashing a veritable porcelain mania. Porcelain, known as white gold, was traded at high prices, and many people in Europe diligently attempted to reinvent it, trying to find out how it was produced. Scouts were sent to Imperial China for what today is called »industrial espionage« and to resolve the puzzle of porcelain manufacture. About 300 years ago, porcelain was finally successfully reinvented in the German town of Meißen. The first porcelains produced in Europe were copies of Chinese models, after all, their buyers, European monarchs and wealthy aristocrats, were obsessed with Asian-style porcelain. It was some time before Europe developed its own formal idiom for porcelain. The history of European porcelain manufacture therefore has been strongly marked by the copy, which is highly ironic considering that today China is suspected of copying even German porcelains.
In anticipation of this, Laura Straßer commissioned her first copy. Busts – the symbol for representation –which are all copies of herself and all of them produced in China. 

Thomas Thwaites
»›Centuries by the Day‹ Calendar Wallpaper«
This calendar shows every day of the week, extending for centuries back into the past and forward centuries into the future. Schloss Solitude was built in in 1769, 243 years ago. The calendar starts from 1st January 1769, and continues through 2012 for another 243 years. Each day for nearly five centuries is shown on the wall, and each day is given equal space (but weekends are highlighted). Your entire lifetime is shown in about 80 rows, a fraction of the total calendar. The calendar will need to be replaced on 31st December 2155.

Alan Worn
»Positioning«
Architects have often found inspiration in the differences, and surprising similarities, between drawings and buildings. These sculptures explore how two-dimensional elevations or impressions can be variously extrapolated, combined, and perceived: idealised geometries are crafted as skewed surfaces, with variable hue and reflectance. Seen from and beyond constructed perspectives, the sculptures refer to tensions between the ideal and the real, the graphical and the material.

Opening: Thursday, November 15, 2012, 8 pm

On view: Friday, November 16 through Friday, December 21, 2012
Opening hours: Mo–Fr 10–12 & 14–16, Sa–Sun 12–16