Exhibition catalogue for ARTS ⇆ CRAFTS

ARTS ⇆ CRAFTS begins with the so often drawn demarcation between art and craftsmanship, leaves these boundaries of the past behind, asks what a fruitful dialogue between art and craft might look like and places both in a larger social context. The importance and appreciation of the craft as an essential component of material culture, cultural identity and community are thereby connected with social and economic conditions in a globalised world. The exhibition mediates between modern/contemporary art, craftsmanship and new technologies, traces cultural transfers across national borders, explores intermediate areas, transition zones and allows for opaque spaces.

The catalogue continues the discourse between craftsmanship and digitisation in the medium of the book. Artist Anna Gille interprets the works of art and transfers them into the medium of drawing. The black and white representations emphasise the abstraction of the depicted objects and the book itself. In opting for drawn work illustrations, the book refers to the tradition of 19th- and early 20th-century exhibition catalogues of arts and crafts while the photographic illustrations link the book to the present.

Curator Barbara Steiner‘s central text highlights the most significant aspects of the tangled relationships between art and craftsmanship in history and present. Interviews with the represented artists Azra Akšamija, Olivier Guesselé-Garai, Plamen Dejanoff, Olaf Holzapfel, Antje Majewski, Jorge Pardo, Johannes Schweiger, Slavs and Tatars, and Haegue Yang offer an in-depth insight in their works, approaches and stance.