Autumn of Design: the Illustrative in Berlin and the Designers’ Open in Leipzig
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Two festivals mark the start of Germany’s autumn of design – both trendsetting and trend-seeking in their different ways. At the Illustrative, illustration leaves its comfort zone behind, while in Leipzig the Designers’ Open seeks to show how young talent is continuing the old artisan traditions of this central-German region. The Illustrative in Berlin regards itself very much as an internationally oriented platform for painting’s little sister, illustration. This is the third time it has presented the freshest work being done in this up-and-coming art form to a German audience. Sounding out the dividing lines between media
Following visits to Zurich and Paris, organisers Pascal Johanssen and Katja Kleiss have returned to the dignified rooms of the Villa Elisabeth in Berlin’s Mitte borough for the 2009 Illustrative.
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Over the last year, they observed and supported 500 artists, most of them illustrators, and then made a selection of 30. Half of the exhibiting artists are already familiar to the two from previous exhibitions and collaborations – among them the German star of the scene Olaf Hajek, with his finely painted miniatures, or Erik Mark Sandberg from L.A., whose Hairy Children series can always be relied on to unsettle and grab visitors’ attention. Others such as the Berlin-based Sonja Danowski and the Finnish artist Santtu Mustonen are new discoveries. Mustonen, in particular, exemplifies a tendency that Johanssen identifies as the next stage in the development of illustration – leaving behind the pure medium of the image for three-dimensionality or movement. Johanssen believes illustrators are ever more sounding out the dividing lines between media, for instance when Mustonen creates and animates what could be described as ‘kinetic images’ – which are rather reminiscent of perpetua mobilia – or when Hajek, who has now abandoned paper as the base for his drawings, ‘draws’ carpets. Another representative of this trend is the French artist Sébastien Preschoux, who transforms whole rooms with installations made up of cords in his attempts to reproduce the colour effects and spatial impact of the incidence of light on forest floors. A new mingling of the arts
Technically traditional illustrators such as Sonja Danowski have come up with a different twist with which to present themselves: Danowski has not simply hung her wonderful observations of everyday life in Berlin on the wall, but built an installation composed of her series: ‘Even though it is quite traditional work done by hand, the presentation certainly signals the sort of break with the past we were looking for in the exhibition,’ Johanssen explains.He calls this development ‘a new mingling of the arts’, something he first became aware of in 2006 when he was asked whether, as a ‘conventional’ gallery owner, he would not like to exhibit illustrators as well. At first, he and Katja Kleiss rejected the idea, but then they brooded over the matter a little longer, immersed themselves in the topic and the works, and realised that, ‘at that moment it really was the most innovative art form with the most interesting and freshest artists,’ as Johanssen says. |
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Apart from this, it possessed an internationality of which other art forms could only dream.
The two have found this being confirmed again and again during the last three years. Right from the very beginning, the Illustrative was stormed by visitors and overwhelmed with enquiries from artists. These days, Johanssen and Kleist organise the event the whole year round, mentor artists and publish the specialist periodical Objects.
Growing-together of the scene
In this position, they are currently witnessing a growing-together of the scene, a mingling of techniques in the applied arts that reminds Johanssen of the Bauhaus: ‘However, this is not happening as a group process, but is taking place between individual persons.’ The new media and the Internet have also made it possible for him to mentor and observe artists, while the artists are reaping similar benefits: ‘They are much better informed than earlier, about what people are doing, and the kinds of new developments that are occurring.’ Furthermore, it is unfortunately also noticeable who is not so well integrated into the worldwide network yet: ‘What we are missing again are artists from Africa and certain parts of Eastern Europe. But we want to get them on board, that is what we will be endeavouring to do for the next Illustrative.’ This will be held in New York, as the organisers and artists have agreed, and the next few years will see the event alternating between New York and Berlin.
The creative potential of central Germany
By contrast, the Designers’ Open, which has just been held in Leipzig for the fifth time, is rooted especially strongly in a specific location, for the fair has set itself the task of ‘highlighting the creative potential of central Germany,’ as organiser and product designer Jan Hartmann says. At the same time, the priorities defined for the three-day festival in October are highly traditional at first sight – product design, fashion, communications and interior design – they have little to do with cutting-edge technology. This year, the main exhibition took place for the first time at the Merkurhaus, a former department store designed in the style of the New Objectivity, with 150 exhibiting designers on four floors. Five years ago, Hartmann and his colleague Andreas Neubert, who is also a designer, really just wanted to build better networks within the local design community, and now they are busy twelve months of the year going through applications for the Designers’ Open in order to pick out excellent, innovative products for their festival. ‘Because we are designers ourselves, we know how difficult it is at first to get any attention with your products,’ Hartmann comments. Especially when it comes to new design or communications concepts that are not far from being ready for the market. Further development of a familiar feature
One example of a project at this stage was offered by the Dresden design bureau Neongrau, which set up an interactive exhibition stand using product catalogues that transform into three-dimensional installations in front of the visitor when they are opened – a project known as ‘intolight’, with which the company wants to make it possible for the ‘normal’, old-fashioned trade fair stand to become a virtual experience.
Another technically ambitious further development of a familiar feature of our environment came from the young Magdeburg-based designers Schindelhauer-Bikes, who have set out to reinvent the bicycle. Replacing the conventional chain with a zero-maintenance, practically indestructible carbon-fibre toothed belt, they have built beautiful-looking bikes, pieces of high-quality engineering that, for all the purism with which they are designed, are constructed to stand up to all the demands of day-to-day use.
Alongside these two young design collectives from central Germany, there were a number of other German designers who also satisfied Hartmann’s standards of innovativeness, presentation and skill. And apart from exhibitors from northern and southern Germany, Austrian and Swiss design professionals too are once again very welcome to submit applications for the 2010 Designers’ Open.
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Iris Braun
is a freelance journalist and author in Berlin.
Translation: Martin Pearce
Copyright: Goethe-Institut e. V., Online-Redaktion
October 2009
is a freelance journalist and author in Berlin.
Translation: Martin Pearce
Copyright: Goethe-Institut e. V., Online-Redaktion
October 2009
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