smow Journal Logo
Category: Chemnitz Creative
19 stories found
5 New Architecture & Design Exhibitions for November 2024
Architecture | 31.10.2024

5 New Architecture & Design Exhibitions for November 2024

As the, then, still plain Walter Scott, so nearly opined in 1806: "November's sky is chill and drear, November's leaf is red and sear: Late, gazing down the steepy linn That hems our little garden in, I thought, what an excellent month to visit an architecture or design exhibition."1 Our five retreats from the chill and drear of November 2024 can be found in Chemnitz, Brussels, Winterthur, Krefeld and New York....... "Reform of Life" at the Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz, Chemnitz,

read more
Home Sweet Home. The Archaeology of Domestic Life, SMAC - Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz
Chemnitz Creative | 16.11.2023

Home Sweet Home. The Archaeology of Domestic Life at SMAC - Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz

In 1930 the Danish designer and educator Kaare Klint opined that in terms of furniture and furnishings, "Problemerne er ikke saa nye, de er i mange Tilfælde løst før", "the problems are not so new, they have in many cases been solved before".1 With the exhibition Home Sweet Home. The Archaeology of Domestic Life, SMAC - Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz, test that theory to extreme levels, and also expand it beyond furniture and furnishings to all aspects of domestic arrangements and

read more
The Historia Supellexalis R for Rowac
Chemnitz Creative | 06.07.2023

The Historia Supellexalis: "R" for Rowac

Rowac A Rivet; A Crimp; A Schemel According to the Trabant Sagas, a component of the Erzgebirge Hoard, that earliest of all documentations of life in the contemporary Sachsen, the Rowac was developed by a Wagner by the name of Robert, a young man who although a member of that renowned Sächsische Wagner community which had brought motorised mobility to the peoples of the known worlds, had chosen to follow the trade of the Windowsmith, an, at that time, relatively new profession that had

read more
The Rowac-Schemel, Rowac Stool
Bauhaus | 18.03.2023

(smow) introducing: Rowac

The return of an old favourite, and no not (smow) introducing, although Welcome Back!!!, but the Rowac-Schemel, the Rowac stool, a work initially launched in 1909 as one of the world's first sheet steel furniture objects, a work that once graced not only innumerable industrial workshops, craft ateliers and educational institutes, but the workshops and ateliers at Bauhauses Weimar and Dessau, a work that became lost in the confusions of post-War eastern Germany. A work returning in 2023, some

read more
karl clauss dietel. die offene form by Walter Scheiffele and Steffen Schuhmann through Spector Books (image courtesy Spector Books)
Bauhaus | 19.11.2021

karl clauss dietel. die offene form by Walter Scheiffele and Steffen Schuhmann

It is perhaps indicative of the differing receptions to and estimations of design in the former West Germany and the former East Germany that while Dieter Rams' Ten Principles of good design are revered as if cast in stone, Karl Clauss Dietel's Five Big Ls of good design have barely seen the light of day since November 1989. A popular focus on the former West which tends to popular understandings of design from West Germany as being valid and authentic and laudable, while design from East

read more
Simson Diamant Erika. Formgestaltung von Karl Clauss Dietel, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz
Chemnitz Creative | 13.07.2021

Simson, Diamant, Erika. Formgestaltung von Karl Clauss Dietel at the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz

"In his work the designer seeks to find the constancy of the good", wrote Karl Clauss Dietel in 1973, a lightly articulated yet not so straightforward task for, as he continues, not only is the assessment of such dependent on a myriad varying factors, but "the search for what defines design, what it grows from, where it comes from and where it wants to go, takes on new dimensions against the background of our cultural upheaval".1 With the exhibition Simson, Diamant, Erika. Formgestaltung von

read more
Ich bin ganz von Glas. Marianne Brandt and the Art of Glass Today, Sächsische Industriemuseum Chemnitz
Architecture | 21.10.2019

Ich bin ganz von Glas. Marianne Brandt and the Art of Glass Today @ The Sächsische Industriemuseum, Chemnitz

László Moholy-Nagy may have given Marianne Brandt "mettle for metal", and metal may be the material with which she is most readily and popularly associated; however, as she wrote in 1922, "Ich bin ganz von Glas"..... I am entirely glass. Fragile? Transparent? Opaque? Metamorphic? Refractive? Sparkling? For its 7th edition the triennial International Marianne Brandt Contest sought projects exploring glass in all its interpretations, properties and essences; the 60 nominated projects being

read more
Bauhaus. Textiles and Graphics, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz
Bauhaus | 09.05.2019

Bauhaus. Textiles and Graphics @ Kunstsammlungen, Chemnitz

That joining the Women's Department weaving workshop was for many a female Bauhäusler not so much an active wish as the response to a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, shouldn't be confused with the workshop producing work of an involuntary, unloving, uncaring nature, of it playing second fiddle to the rest of the institution. Far from it. The quality and relevance of the work created in the Bauhaus weaving workshop being in many regards attested by the fact it was one of the more productive and

read more
New textile worlds in a creative context – Potential technical, intelligent textiles + smart materials, Wasserschloß Klaffenbach, Chemnitz
Chemnitz Creative | 03.05.2019

New textile worlds in a creative context – Potential technical, intelligent textiles + smart materials at Wasserschloß Klaffenbach, Chemnitz

One of the principle motors of the development of new products is new materials: stone famously ceding its primacy to bronze, which in turn ceded to iron... to .... to .... to .... plastics; new materials not only allowing for new forms of objects, but for objects with new functionalities, new properties, new purposes, and thus objects both reflective of the new needs of a continually evolving society and also allowing those needs to be not only met but, ideally, exceeded, thus contributing to

read more
Bauhaus_Sachsen, Grassi Museum für Angewandte Kunst Leipzig
Bauhaus | 18.04.2019

Bauhaus_Sachsen @ Grassi Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Leipzig

When one considers the, let's say, unique, derisive, unalluring place the Sächsisch dialect enjoys endures amongst German speakers, it could be considered unwise, foolhardy, to explore all too deeply the contributions made by creatives and industry in and from the State of Sachsen to the development of Bauhaus, to explore, if you will, Bauhaus's Sächsisch accent. With the exhibition Bauhaus_Sachsen the Grassi Museum für Angewandte Kunst Leipzig do just that....... Bauhaus_Sachsen, Grassi

read more
Unikate 7 Handwerkskammer Chemnitz Gestalter im Handwerk Wasserschloss Klaffenbach
Designer | 20.08.2018

#campustour 2018: Unikate 7, Handwerkskammer Chemnitz, Germany

Odd as it may be to consider today, in the course of the 19th century and throughout the first decades of the 20th century, the German town of Chemnitz was one of the most important locations in central Europe for heavy and mechanical engineering, and thereby an important motor on the highway from craft to industrial production, supplying as it did the machines, infrastructure and ideas to enable that transfer. The importance of Chemnitz in the 19th century can perhaps be best gauged by the

read more
Gestures - Past, Present and Future at the Sächsischen Industriemuseum Chemnitz
Chemnitz Creative | 22.11.2017

Gestures – Past, Present and Future @ the Sächsische Industriemuseum, Chemnitz

👋 Gestures belong to the oldest of human actions and interactions. Have accompanied mankind through good times and bad, through its innumerate technical, cultural and social revolutions. And are so intuitive, we are often barely aware of them. With the exhibition Gestures – Past, Present and Future, the Sächsische Industriemuseum Chemnitz explores not only the (hi)story and importance of gestures, but for all their role in our smart, digital, autonomous futures. Gestures - Past, Present

read more
Tod & Ritual - Kulturen von Abschied und Erinnerung, Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz
Chemnitz Creative | 16.11.2017

Tod & Ritual - Kulturen von Abschied und Erinnerung @ Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz

The old adage that the only certainties in life are death and taxes has become (more than) a little passé of late. However even the accountants and investment bankers cannot, yet, avoid death. With the exhibition Tod & Ritual - Kulturen von Abschied und Erinnerung the Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz, smac, explore the historical and cultural traditions and rituals of that last remaining timeless, universal, and utterly inescapable phenomenon. Tod & Ritual - Kulturen von

read more
International Marianne Brandt Contest 2016 Exhibition, Chemnitz Museum of Industry
Architecture | 05.10.2016

International Marianne Brandt Contest 2016 - Winners and Exhibition

The winners and nominated projects from the 2016 International Marianne Brandt Contest can be viewed in an exhibition in Chemnitz. International Marianne Brandt Contest 2016 Exhibition, Chemnitz Museum of Industry Time was we couldn't write about Chemnitz without making a cynical comment, an alleged joke. Time was. These days we not only travel voluntarily, and regularly, to Chemnitz but have begun to understand aspects of the town's character, aspects which on account of our previous

read more
Offspring @ GALERIE Angewandte Kunst Schneeberg
Chemnitz Creative | 12.04.2016

Chemnitz Creative: Offspring @ GALERIE Angewandte Kunst Schneeberg

The Faculty of Applied Arts Schneeberg is by no stretch of the imagination Germany's largest design school; however, that in context of design education size is less important than how creativity is nurtured, supported and encouraged can currently be explored in the exhibition "Offspring – Graduates of Schneeberg present furniture and product design" at the GALERIE Rüdiger SchaackAngewandte Kunst Schneeberg in Schloss Lichtenwalde. Presenting works by eleven graduates from Schneeberg's Wood

read more
Slatted-Armchair, Lattenstuhl by Marcel Breuer, 1924 (Photo ©/ courtesy of HEICKMANN KG, Chemnitz)
Bauhaus | 26.02.2016

smow Blog Interview: Ansgar B. Heickmann, Auktionshaus Heickmann, Chemnitz ... Or, How One Sells a Marcel Breuer Chair for Euro 55,000...

"The starting point for the chair was the problem of comfortable seating combined with a simple construction. A problem which led to the defining of the following requirements: a) Elastic seat and backrest, but no upholstery, which is heavy, expensive and gathers dust b) Inclination of the seat so as to support the upper leg along its full length without the pressure that arises with a flat seating surface c) An angled position for the upper body d) Freedom of the spine because each and very

read more
Feinserie at Ambiente Frankfurt 2016
Ambiente | 15.02.2016

Ambiente Frankfurt 2016: Feinserie

In our interview with Marcel Kabisch, founder of and creative force behind German label Feinserie, he told us that what interested him in design, and part of his motivation to study design, was the idea of "bringing a certain intelligence into a product", and of achieving "an efficiency in design" Principles which are elegantly displayed in his new Griffbereit Chair. In many ways an extension of an idea begun with his award winning Griffbereit Stool/Side Table, the Griffbereit Chair is formed

read more
Marcel Kabisch Sessel Diplomarbeit Kabisch 2002_2
Awards | 19.03.2015

Chemnitz Creative: Marcel Kabisch

As we've often noted in these pages the eastern German town of Chemnitz markets itself as the "City of Modernism", which as we've equally often noted in these pages is a bit of an over optimistic claim. For just as a swallow doesn't make a summer so being the birthplace of Marianne Brandt and possessing an Erich Mendelsohn department store building doesn't make you a "city of modernism" Which isn't to say that Chemnitz isn't without its cultural relevance: historically through works such as,

read more
silbaerg
Chemnitz Creative | 20.08.2014

Chemnitz Creative: silbærg snowboards

In the past we have, admittedly, been "somewhat" harsh on Chemnitz. Unfairly so considered some. Many. "C'mon! Chemnitz isn't all that bad!!!!" being the general response. And so we decide to investigate a little more closely, to peer behind our prejudices and explore contemporary creativity in Chemnitz. Beginning with snowboard manufacturer silbærg. Initiated in the context of a research project at the Chemnitz Technical University silbærg snowboards make use of so-called Anisotropic Layer

read more