Exhibition "Softcore

The idea of the brilliant idea that leads straight to the finished product is persistent. However, most designers describe the design process as a journey with many detours and course changes, beginning with numerous questions and culminating in an intensive phase of extensive discussions, research and experimentation. Deadlines may accelerate the creation phase - but its end is only in sight when all the conceptual considerations have been made, the right choice of materials has been made and the appropriate manufacturing process has been found, and these individual parts fit 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 exhibition Softcore brings together designs from the study focus Design of Textile Products at the Kunsthochschule Kassel, led by Prof. Ayzit Bostan, which impressively demonstrate the skills of designers in combining content-related considerations with craftsmanship and technical knowledge. One discovers dresses with ephemeral embroideries that come off like flying seeds when worn, and translucent curtains that flatter windows, woven from used Christmas tree nets; one marvels at effects achieved by applying a traditional photographic printing technique to textiles, and at the further qualities that can be elicited from the wickerwork of a design classic by scaling and a change of material; one is reminded that it is the small interventions that can have an astonishingly large effect, for example when the existing service clothing 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 handicraft, production work steps. It is not one idea that gives these things their form - diverse trains of thought and solutions accumulate in each of them. In the exhibition space, the designs already show themselves in their final form, but here their meaning shifts from an object of use to one that is viewed by an audience. In Softcore, the possibilities of this shift are used to provide insights into the genesis of the objects on display and to widen the view of them. Soundtracks, a film, and the exhibition display allow them to be experienced sensually, even if they cannot be put to use. It is left to the audience to fill the exhibition space with thoughts and conversations about what kind of life of their own the designs might unfold when they take on a life of their own outside, in other spaces and contexts, with their bearers and users.

(Text: Tanja Seiner, designer and curator)

Opening: June 18, 2022, Exhibition: June 19-25, 2022,  Opening hours 12 to 8 p.m.
Ausstellungshalle, Kunsthochschule Kassel Menzelstr. 13, 34121 Kassel (between Hörsaalgebäude u. Nordbau)