Exkursion
1. General Information
1.1 Overview
Title: Schausammlung
Place: Museum der Dinge, Berlin
Date: Permanent exhibitions (Thuesday to Mondays 12-19 hrs.)
Subject: Historic exhibit of Werkbundarchiv objects
Objects: 25.000 daily life Objects from the 20 century
Target Group: All most everyone. It’s a collection that is familiar to all of us.
2. Analysis
2.1 Classification
Support: the Institution Werkbundarchiv – Museum der Dinge is conformed by a registered association conformed in year 1972.
Category: –
Exhibition room: interior
Exhibition: permanent
Budget: XS
2.2 Exhibition
The Museum of Things (Museum der Dinge) is situated in a former factory building in Kreuzberg, Berlin. It hosts a permanent exhibition and a long-running program of events, including temporary exhibitions, lectures, and seminars.
The collection is based on the archive of the Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation), an association of artists, architects, designers and industrialists formed in 1907 to integrate traditional crafts and industrial mass-production techniques.
The Museum is a public funded institution and has been documenting modern material culture and product culture by collecting design-historically significant objects and archival materials since the 1970s. The resulting collection consists of mainly 20th century articles reaching approximately 35,000 documents and 25,000 objects.
3. Evaluation
The permanent exhibition shows the development of materials, forms, functions, and usages of objects from the 20th century to the present. The objects are organized chronologically, but with interesting focal points, such as so called “taste aberrations” or “Kitsch”. These focal points on the one hand help the visitor to understand important moments and trends in the history of German design and on the other hand allow him or her to see everyday objects under a different light. The information are short, concise and for german- and english-spoken people.
The museum considers itself not only a documentation center but also as a laboratory. This is evident trough the design of the space, which is organized as an “open storage” and features the objects in a crowded but well organized way in old vitrines, creating an effect of “cabinet of curiosities.” The narrow corridors between the tall cabinets generate interesting spatial situations creating a peculiar experience for the visitors: one follows the exhibition in a solitary and intimate way, feeling for some moments like being lost in time.
Another important aspect in the Museum is the juxtaposition, both in a visual and conceptual sense: objects by renowned designers are juxtaposed with anonymous designs, artisan pieces with industrial objects, artistic designs with homemade wartime products, functional, “pure” objects with “kitsch” and brand name objects with generic ones.
In some cases, the juxtaposition and the cabinets as display elements aren’t ideal for the contemplation of some exhibits, especially of details. For example there are some pieces, which are difficult to see, since they are displayed above or below the field of view or even behind a wooden division.
However, the overall effect of the classical museological display and the space structure plays an important role on the curatorial approach of the museum: it challenges our perception of mass-produced daily objects. This experience offers the visitor the possibility not only to have an unusual aesthetic cultivation on everyday objects but also to explore our understanding of design in relation to culture.
4. Alan Wexler Lecture
4.1 Overview
Event: Alan Wexler’s talk “Künstler-Architekt”
Place: Museum der Dinge, Berlin
Date: 7 November 2013
Subject: Alan Wexler’s Work
4.2 Lecture
Allan Wexler: Cocktail Party Response #1
“What kind of work do you do?”
My studio is a laboratory where I determine the constant and control the variables. I look at one thing, I build and I observe the results. I rebuild and I look again. I’m an architect who observes the world from a vantage point of an artist.
Alan Wexler is an architect from New York that has been creating for 45 years. According to his own definition, his work engages not only architecture, but also art and design.
The lecture was worth not only for knowing and understanding Wexler’s work, but also for the inspiring working method he showed us.
He reviewed a lot of his projects, whose common denominator was not only art, but also methodology. Constancy, scientific method, permutation and experimentation mixed together for pushing creativity to another level. Wexler remembered us how to put our wit in crisis by isolating variables. Re-Searching the House (1996), Chair a day (1990) and Chair Studies and Transformations (2007 – 2009) are clear examples of this principle; series in witch Wexler explores a clear idea like making 16 chairs in 16 days or transforming 24 ordinary Ikea chairs into new versions that makes us think about ritual and ceremony.
As he affirmed, he just reinterpreted a same concept along the years by different approaches that end up being different projects. This cyclic reinterpretation only reaffirms his admirable constancy.
By experimenting with analog objects that are part of our daily routine and surroundings, Wexler dissolves the boundaries between disciplines and gives us a fresh look of what we thought couldn’t surprise us anymore. Tables, drywalls or coffee cups. Sitting, eating and living viewed from a different perspective, which allows us to understand the world and his objects as extensions of ourselves. On his own words:
Allan Wexler: Cocktail Party Response #9
“What kind of work do you do?”
I’m a teacher. I encourage people to see what is to close. I help people to break habits. I help students to become beginners again.
Wexler’s has been represented by the Ronald Feldman Gallery in New York City and currently teaches in the School of Constructed Environments at Parsons the New School for Design in NY. Between the recognitions he has received is the Henry J. Leir Prize for outstanding work in exhibition (2009 for “Gardening Sukkah”, Reinventing Ritual, Jewish Museum NY), the Rome Prize Fellowship Award (2004/2005), the George Nelson Design Award from Interiors Magazine (1999) and the Chrysler Award for Design Innovation (1997).
For checking his work visit his page http://www.allanwexlerstudio.com/
Text: Camila González Benöhr and Iohanna Nicenboim
Pictures: Copyright; Armin Herrmann / Werkbundarchiv – Museum der Dinge