Opening of the exhibition "Softcore"

The idea of a brilliant idea that leads straight to the finished product is a persistent one. However, most designers describe the design process as a journey with many detours and changes of course, which begins with numerous questions and ends in an intensive phase of extensive discussions, research and experimentation. Deadlines may speed up the creation phase - but the end is only in sight when all the conceptual considerations have been made, the right choice of materials has been made and the right manufacturing process has been found, and these individual parts come together to form a coherent whole that no longer shows the twisting and turning of questions and approaches, the trying out and discarding of solutions.

The Softcore exhibition brings together designs from the textile product design course led by Prof. Ayzit Bostan at the Kunsthochschule Kassel, which impressively demonstrate the ability of designers to combine content-related considerations with craftsmanship and technical knowledge. One discovers dresses with ephemeral embroidery that detach like flying seeds when worn, and window-caressing, translucent curtains woven from used Christmas tree nets; marvels at the effects achieved by applying a traditional photographic printing technique to textiles and the additional qualities that can be elicited from the weave of a design classic through scaling and a change of material; We are reminded that it is the small interventions that can have an astonishingly large effect, for example when the existing workwear of the Kassel public transport company is upgraded with a colorful, sensual accessory.

It can be observed to what extent the intensive handling of materials, techniques and machines in the workshops of the art academy flows into the design work of the students, and to what extent the result is characterized by an interplay between the examination of content and the manual, productive work steps. It is not just one idea that gives these objects their form - a variety of ideas and solutions accumulate in each of them. In the exhibition space, the designs are already shown in their final form, but here their significance shifts from an object of utility to one that is viewed by an audience. In Softcore, the possibilities of this shift are used to provide insights into the history of the creation of the objects on display and to broaden the view of them. Soundtracks, a film and the exhibition display allow them to be experienced through the senses, even if they cannot be used. It is up to the audience to fill the exhibition space with thoughts and conversations about what kind of life the designs might unfold when they take on a life of their own outside, in other spaces and contexts, with their wearers and users.

(Text: Tanja Seiner, designer and curator)

Opening: June 18, 2022, exhibition: June 19-25, 2022,  Opening hours 12 to 8 p.m.
Exhibition hall, Kunsthochschule Kassel Menzelstr. 13, 34121 Kassel (between the lecture hall building and the north building)