photos: Heji Shin
Journeying across deserts, cities and foreign lands, the 19th century explorer Heinrich Barth was on constant expeditions to experience the world’s diversity and cultures with sensitivity. As an homage to his restless spirit and adventures, an eponymous line of high-quality bodycare is dedicated to wanderlust and intimacy. Heinrich Barth products are born out of their founders’ urge to capture and cherish moments in the form of lavish mementos associated with places they have close to their heart. Eclectic ingredients from different regions of the world are the basis of all the products which are made by a traditional family business in Turin, Italy. The primary product line is without scent in order to make anyone feel comfortable in their skin and environment without leaving a trace. In contrast, the Destination Line is reminiscent of specific places: MYKONOS 07 brings on the olfactory experience of being on the island right in its prime in July. Fig leaves, olive trees and wild herbs tell stories of endless summers. DAKAR 04, with its hints of papaya, mango and vanilla, transports the wearer to the city’s bustling markets, where fruits are stacked up to the sky on wooden carts and their aromas mix with bright colors. Travel and discovery trace every step of Heinrich Barth. Wanderlust turns into liquid indulgence.
images: Instagram Heinrich Barth
Frozen tent for the Antarctic-Biennale 2017, Work + Photo: Gustav Düsing
For most people, Antarctica, the earth’s sixth continent, is so far away that it can be perceived as common heritage, as an agile archive and laboratory, in which a new era of ecological consciousness is being fostered. Antarctica is a geographic end of the world yet central to global debates about climate change. But what are the intellectual and practical coordinates of commissioning art in such a location? Can we even talk about an ‘antarctic imaginary’ beyond scientific discourse? Starting with a screening of Pierre Huyghes’ film A Journey That Wasn’t, the event “Expeditions / Exhibitions” investigates the topic of travels and their presentation. What follows is a discussion between Antarctic Biennale participant Gustav Düsing, author and expert in Huyghe’s work Marie-France Rafael, and co-curator of the Antarctic Biennale Nadim Samman addressing the larger questions at hand. As part of the event, Düsing will reveal his architectural contribution to the biennial: a tent made of frozen fabric as a reference to the most prominent typology that has been used for Arctic expeditions since the 19th century. This event is part of Stop making sense, it’s as good as it gets., an ongoing program developed by Ludwig Engel and Joanna Kamm, derived from a close reading of Tom McCarthy’s novel Satin Island. Artists, writers, architects, theorists and scientists are invited to discuss their interpretations of time through different formats.
© Vitra | bottom: design sketches by Panton, probably between 1957 and 1960, Vitra Design Museum Archives
After several years of joint development by Verner Panton and Vitra, the Panton Chair was finally ready for production in 1967 as the first all-plastic cantilever chair to be manufactured in one piece. Created with a revolutionary technique even for today’s standards, the chair’s unique sculptural design was presented to the public for the first time at the imm Furniture Fair in Cologne in 1968. It rapidly came to symbolize an entire era. Now, 50 years after its launch, Vitra is celebrating this timeless icon by issuing two limited editions that bring lustre and luminosity to those dynamic curves: Panton Chrome and Panton Glow. The inspiration for the first one derives from Verner Panton’s fascination with mirrored surfaces and his extensive experiments with diverse reflective effects. An old dream of the designer finally comes to fruition as a recent complex process prevents its previous sensitivity to scratching. On the other hand, Panton Glow accentuates luminosity and a certain “radiance from within” due to phosphorescent pigments that absorb daylight and emit a blue glow in the dark. The jubilee duo shines bright, paying homage to the design’s smooth twists and bends.
A visual voyage reveals the rarely seen inner universe of the religious schools of Shi’ite Islam over hundreds of years, through an harmonious coalition of both recent photographs and historic records. When Naser al-Din Shah travelled to Iraq in the late 1800s, he brought back a fascinating collection of photos depicting not only the Shi’ite holy places, but also antiquities and scenes from contemporary life. Hitherto unpublished, these photographs reveal a cultural wealth that today seems more threatened than ever before. “Insight” seeks to create an awareness for the cultural diversity of the region. These photographs document the continuity of Shi’ite Islam as well as the losses and dramatic changes that have taken place since. Alongside those, Hans Georg Berger’s recent photographs bring a different look on the topic. Intimate portraits and discrete observations of sacred ritual are borne from a stance of respect and curiosity. No other western photographer has delved as deeply into this enigmatic world. Years of listening and trying to comprehend have established the necessary mutual trust to capture the many layers of faith and daily life. The accompanying book published by Kehrer Verlag extends the focus of the exhibition with written contributions on Berger’s approach, on teaching methods at the religious academies, and on the calligraphy which was added to some of the photographs.
top Baas Maartens´ Smoke, bottom Dave Hakkens´ bloks. both © Frank Hülsbömer
Shiny, immaculate, new: these are the qualities we expect from the objects with which we surround ourselves. But one often forgets that aging is also part of life – and design. Transience, the theme taken on by the sixth Design Display exhibition, is much more than a philosophical question. Two designers who deal with the concept of impermanence in different ways take center stage: Maarten Baas destroys in order to create, while Dave Hakkens develops concepts of sustainability. Though both of them share the opinion that good design is more than good looks. For the Smoke series, Baas took iconic design pieces and torched them until they were left charred. In reworking design classics, Maarten Baas’ productive act of destruction not only shows the surface’s vulnerability, but the transience of the original design intentions. The torched versions call for the recognition that things must elapse to make room for the new. Facing Baas on the other side of the glass display, is Dutch designer Dave Hakkens with his Phonebloks – a concept for a smartphone made up entirely of individual modules. The idea is that different “bloks” can be assembled on the motherboard like Lego blocks. These blocks are autonomous functional units such as batteries, processors, speakers, cameras, or memory cards. Users can assemble or upgrade their device at will, as well as easily replace broken parts. The transience of a single module doesn’t spell the end for the whole device. The transience of a single module doesn’t spell the end for the whole device. In the On Display magazine accompanying the exhibition, the fascination with ephemerality and the allure of decay are further explored.
Across the world there has been a shared desire to bring the vision of the Bauhaus up to date, but every attempt to revive it is doomed to failure since it was both a forward-looking project and a child of its time. projekt bauhaus critically examines the ideas of the Bauhaus by using its own methods. It will seek to expose the internal contradictions of the Western idea of progress and discuss alternative approaches. The Bauhaus sought a synthesis of knowledge in which the various forms of knowledge—technical, scientific, emotional, creative—would be interconnected. This concept of knowledge was combined with a new pedagogy to emancipate the people, release their potential, and ultimately lead to the creation of a “new man.” As 2019 will mark the centenary of the founding of the Bauhaus, a one-day symposium hosted at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin will bring together great thinkers to address questions of progress and renewal pertinent to our times: Which spaces encourage creativity and innovation? Which sites of knowledge does society need today? And essentially, do advanced laboratories of computer, internet and media companies represent the Bauhaus of the twenty-first century?
Photos: Elias Hassos
If an artwork is damaged, does it continue to be regarded as art? Apparently not. At least not within the gallery and museum system. All marred art inevitably falls into oblivion, but its lack of monetary worth doesn’t preclude its aesthetic and social values. Salvage art—a term borrowed from the art insurance lexicon—refers to work removed from art circulation due to accidental damage. Founded by artist Elka Krajewska, the Salvage Art Institute rescues said objects from the invisibility of perpetual storage by insurance companies, in order to highlight their survival past their total devaluation. The exhibition No Longer Art – which is part of the program Stop making sense, it’s as good as it gets – exposes a fragile contingency at the heart of art’s identity, beyond the capitalist world it was born into. Its castaway pieces are subject to a peculiar and transformative logic, as they are thrown into art’s nether world but are often still relatively intact. Their identity is discarded and, in theory, they emerge as something entirely different.
© Andreas Gehrke, 2017
An unusual bank building in the centre of Germany, designed by architect Hans Kollhoff in the late 1990s, has been converted into a depot for art and valuables. Seemingly monolithic on one side with its heavy sandstone facade, the mammoth structure flows into an unexpected openness and even relaxedness on the other side. This stems from the enormous glass window designed by Swiss artist Helmut Federle, as well as the interior courtyard covered by a glass roof that, though impregnable, comes across as a light element. Austere calm emitted from the exterior coalesces with a certain domestic atmosphere imparted by an array of rooms inside. There’s a distinct feel for aesthetics and art, and since the new tenants belong to the latter category rather than the monetary world, a harmonizing balance occurs. ZentralDepot offers a safe home to artworks within a climate-controlled setting combining unprecedented security and exceptional design. It goes to indicate that the one does not have to eliminate the other.
Irving Norman, M.F.I. Complex, 1981 © Crocker Art Museum Association, Sacramento; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY / Lene Berg, Stalin by Picasso or Portrait of Woman with Moustache, 2008. Courtesy the artist / HKW image by Sebastian Bolesch
After the Second World War, the battle of the systems also involved the arts and culture in a symbolic arms race. One prominent example was the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), an organization founded in West Berlin to consolidate an “anti-totalitarian” intellectual community. The CCF subsidized countless cultural programs from Latin America to Africa and Southeast Asia, developing a network of journals, conferences, and exhibitions that advanced a “universal” language of modernism in literature, art, and music. By 1967, a major scandal erupted: the CCF was secretly bankrolled by the CIA as a form of propaganda to support an anti-Communist consensus in favor of U.S. hegemony. The exhibition Parapolitics: Cultural Freedom and the Cold War is devoted to the global dimension of cultural politics in that era and to the changing meanings attributed to modernism. The artworks and archival materials on show explore the friction between the political instrumentalization of art and artists’ struggle for autonomy. It’s thoroughly illustrated how modernism became a signifier for individual freedom and was tantamount to establishing Western cultural hegemony in the 20th century. Thus, the CCF is in a way returning to its 10-year-anniversary location, Berlin’s former Congress Hall, today’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt.
© Robert Rieger
Advocating for the integration and inclusion of people from migration and refugee backgrounds, and all kinds of minority groups, lies at the core of The Power of the Arts initiative. Through different expressions of culture — like music, art, theater, and dance — a deeper sense of understanding is fostered across the board. This year’s winning non-profit initiatives touch on numerous issues of discrimination and inequality. Label m invests in youth subcultures and the flourishing scene of young talents in Saarbrucken. Sprayers, skaters, rappers; they all herald the creativity emerging from this often underestimated city. Through Weissensee academy’s *foundationClass program, refugees who want to follow an artistic path are given an opportunity to prepare themselves for applying to art schools. In Saxony, Banda Internationale uses music to neutralize hate, tear down prejudices and connect different cultures. A further aim is to render integration successful and create a more open community where democratic exchange doesn’t merely exist as an idea. Meanwhile, Un-Label seeks to do exactly what its name implies: remove labels and fight against putting people into boxes. Discriminatory boundaries and biases are banished using the means of performing arts.
