Press Information

BLESS N°41
Retroperspective Home

Opening: 7pm, May 21st, 2010
Duration: 22nd May - 29th August 2010  
Curators: Katrin Bucher Trantow, Peter Pakesch

The Exhibition is part of our main topic of the year The way we live.

Set up in 1997, the Berlin and Paris-based design and fashion duo BLESS is the creation of Ines Kaag and Désirée Heiss. The pair have been very visible in the progressive fashion world in recent years, working with other designers such as Martin Margiela, Markus Wente and Samuel de Goede. They go far beyond the rigid concepts of style and fashion, or the creation of brands of everyday objects. Their aim has been much more to ‘‘de-brand’’ clothes and utilitarian objects by designing them ‘‘well’’ from the point of view of durability. Objects of everyday life such as computer cables are tested for their everyday serviceability, subsequently being combined with a decorative effect to appear redefined in a clear, distinctive form. Items of clothing are labelled Allroundwear, Uncool or O.Kayers - labels that in themselves are very suggestive of the functions involved. Over the years, the team has frequently worked in art contexts or with museum institutions such as the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen or the Neues Museum in Nuremberg, examining issues of form, function and motivation. Their work is about metamorphosing and adapting everyday objects for particular uses and particular objects for ordinary use.

Continuing the positive experience we have had at the Kunsthaus with exhibitions on the subject of design (e.g. Living in Motion, Joe Colombo), the intention is now to stage a first in this field-in-house production, as a direct response to the Kunsthaus Graz and the museum environment.

Exhibition Information: +43/316/8017-9200
Press Information: +43/316/8017-9213 and -9211
presse@museum-joanneum.at

Images

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