Nadja Schulze once opined that "Licht ist die tollste aller Sprachen", 'light is the greatest of all languages', and the light her lamps LiLa and Bow spoke at Grassimesse 2024 so enamoured the Grassimesse Jury they awarded Nadja the 2024 Grassimesse smow-Designpreis....... Grassimesse smow-Designpreis 2024 winner Nadja Schulze (photo courtesy Nadja Schulze) Born and raised in Leipzig, Nadja Schulze completed her Bachelor in Innenarchitektur at Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle in the
read moreGrassimesse Leipzig 2024: smow-Designpreis Winner - Nadja Schulze Following on from the co-winners of the inaugural Grassimesse smow-Designpreis Hevesi Annabella/Line and Round and Cornelius Réer the winner of the 2nd edition is Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule, Halle, Interior Architecture Masters student, Nadja Schulze for her lighting projects LiLa, Bow and 360°. The latter a wall mounted lamp, family of lamps, that can be rotated through, well... 360°. A rotation that not only results
read moreBurg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle - Faserland oder 8mm und 100% Bio, Grassimesse 2023, Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Leipzig Cutting straight to the chase, in our post from the Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle Jahresausstellung 2023 we noted "as ever we may have missed things, in fact we know we did": the project Faserland oder 8mm und 100% Bio was that thing we knew we'd missed. Whereby we still don't know where it was hidden, for we can't remember a single square centimetre
read moreFor all that the annual Leipzig Grassimesse is and always has been as a sales fair, a place to peruse, discourse with and purchase, contemporary craft, applied art and design, and thereby an opportunity to support contemporary craft, applied art and design practitioners, or perhaps more accurately an opportunity to support those practitioners whose practice you most enjoy, it has also always been a platform for creative schools and their students to present their works and approaches and
read moreAs we were preparing for our trip to Halle and the 2023 Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Jahresausstellung one of those people on the edge of the smow Blog, one of those people who are so important to its operation, asked us how many summer exhibitions we'd seen at Burg Halle. A question that caused a terror to develop within us as the enormity of the number forming before our eyes became ever more distinct and discernable; but then, before we gave vocal form to such an improbable,
read moreMonographic exhibitions portraying designers from ages past, generally, only leave you with but little opportunity to directly assess, compare and contrast that designer in context of their time. The, desired, concentrated focus on the protagonist leaving you, by necessity, not least by necessity of limits of time and space, primarily relying on those snippets of information and/or blurry images of objects, invariably popularly celebrated objects, your brain can recover in that moment, for any
read moreEach and everyone of us sits innumerable times each and every day in a wide variety of contexts, yet we rarely, if ever, consider the act of sitting. The exhibition Sitting reconsidered. Design, Observe, Stage at the Burg Galerie, Halle challenges us all to do just that....... MRS1 & MRS1 Low by Luis-Konstantin Schlicht, and uncredited student photographic works, as seen at Sitting reconsidered. Design, Observe, Stage, the Burg Galerie, Halle Originating in context of, and presented
read more"...one only finds warmth of life and sincerity where human nature is allowed to flourish", opined the German designer Erich Dieckmann in 1931, "one shouldn't forget that in our apartments. Let's treat our contemporary homes to something humane. Something unelaborate, something provisional, with some leeway and space for things to grow as they wish over time."1 With the exhibition Chairs: Dieckmann! The Forgotten Bauhäusler Erich Dieckmann, the Kunststiftung des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt and
read moreAccording to the Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro February 7th marks the first day of spring. Which strikes us, as we're sure it does you, as a little early; however, there was reason in Varro's bold claim, for Varro further sets February 7th as the start of the year, and for all links February 7th with the rising of the west wind, a favourable, warming wind, whose arrival indicates the need to start cultivating your land and crops, specifically Varro advises, "these are things which
read moreThe Burg Galerie im Volkspark Halle is open every day, is täglich geöffnet; and with their new exhibition, opens the every day: presenting artistic and design reflections on daily routine(s), the Alltag, and in doing so allows for new perspectives on the what, wherewith and wherefore of our (perceived) daily realities..... täglich geöffnet @ Burg Galerie im Volkspark, Halle The first in a series of exhibitions being staged throughout 2019 under the title, ABC, täglich geöffnet presents 26
read more"Welcher Fehler braucht ein system?", "Which errors/mistakes/imperfections does a system require?", asked the Kunsthochschule Burg Giebichenstein Halle's 2018 annual exhibition. And used the question as a celebration of the power of trial and error, of the value, importance, poetry, of imperfections, abrasion, the incorrect, the unintended, the random, the well planned but ultimately unsuccessful, and how any otherwise well-organised, professional and targeted system needs a nuisance factor,
read moreAlthough older than Bauhaus Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle has arguably never achieved the same popular acclaim as its fêted near neighbour. Is however still in existence, and thus need not live on its laurels, but rather can continually develop its legacy through the efforts and ideas of its staff and students. The 2017 annual summer exhibition provided insights into the contribution made, and being made, by the current crop........ Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle: The
read moreSuch are the vagaries of the autumn/spring cycle in the global design exhibition industry, and it is an industry people, let's not fool ourselves otherwise, August is traditionally a very lean month: curators are on holiday, critics are on holiday, exhibition designers are on holiday, protagonists are on holiday. Who wants to open an exhibition? The following five museums. That's who.......... "Dream out Loud" at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland Whereas museum exhibitions generally
read moreAs we noted in our post celebrating Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle's 100th birthday, one of Paul Thiersch's first initiatives upon taking charge of the Handwerkerschule Halle, the future Burg Giebichenstein, was to establish workshops to connect art and trade and thus properly prepare his students for the demands of the emerging industries. It is therefore only fitting that to round off the institution's centenary celebrations an exhibition should be being staged celebrating the
read more"I intend to run the institution such that in terms of craftsmanship the best possible is achieved, and to foster it so that from an artistic perspective it meets all the requirements of modern conceptions of art"1, so wrote the architect Paul Thiersch in his 1914 application for the vacant post of Director of the Handwerkerschule in Halle, Germany. An argument which clearly found favour with the Hallesche selection panel, for on July 1st 1915 Paul Thiersch was selected ahead of the 74 other
read moreAs any fool know, Germany's most important contribution to art, architecture and design education was established in Weimar in April 1919. However, some three and half years before Walter Gropius welcomed the first students to his Bauhaus college, a further Germanic education institution was established, an institution which just as with Bauhaus took a new, modern, progressive, approach to art, design and architecture education yet an institution which in comparison to Bauhaus is still
read more24 hours after Hella Jongerius crossed our paths at the Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin Rundgang 2014, and 48 hours after finding ourselves in the same corridor as Axel Kufus at the Universität der Künste Berlin Rundgang 2014, Stephan Schulz cycled past us as we walked to the 2014 summer exhibition at Burg Giebichenstein Halle. Its just the way we rock. Sorry....... As we've noted before Halle should be Vienna. It's certainly a much more attractive, imposing and interesting city than its
read moreThose Milan Design Week visitors brave enough to venture north of Garibaldi Station, yes there is civilisation up there, will be rewarded by an exhibition that demonstrates just how easily architecture, art and design can co-exist without threatening one another's integrity. Design, architecture and art combined in a borderless display of unity, tolerance and respect. Which sounds like a nice response to the current political situation in Italy. It isn't meant as such, but.... Magic Moments
read moreFollowing our visits to the Bauhaus University Weimar, Fachhochschule Potsdam, Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee and Universität der Künste Berlin the final stage of our 2011 summer tour was Burg Giebichenstein Halle. It may just be us, but we are firmly of the belief that Burg Giebichenstein students complete more, and more varied, seminars than students at any of the other schools we visit. At least based on the presentations at their end of year show. Be it designing record sleeves,
read moreMany of you will no doubt remember our summer tour 2010. We'll it's that time of year again. Our 2011 summer tour kicks of on July 7th with the semester show at the HTW Dresden - the first time we've visited their show. We don't know why, we just feel we should go. Then on July 14th we'll be in Thüringen for the opening of Summaery 2011 at the Bauhaus University Weimar, Friday July 15th is Potsdam and the annual end of year show at the Fachhochschule. Then, as ever, its gets complicated.
read moreAlthough very short the (smow)summer tour 2010 was certainly worth the effort. Its always worth the effort to visit an annual exhibition at a design school. Our primary focus was, logically, the product and industrial design work, but we did also take the opportunity to visit the other departments. And wherever one goes and whatever one views, you will always find something that strikes a chord or otherwise inspires you. Often in the most unexpected departments. Which is why we can always
read more"Exhibition Opening on Friday 16. Juli Volkspark Halle" We admit we didn't actually check what Burg Giebichenstein understand by "Exhibition Opening" Didn't really see the need. We just wish we had. Because everywhere else "Exhibition Opening" means the exhibition is opened. Even the Magdeburger Volksstimme understands it as such. However "Exhibition Opening" at Burg Giebichenstein means a private awards ceremony for an invited audience of Local VIPs cleverly packaged as a public
read moreName: Stephan Schulz Born: Schwerin, 1983 Alma mater: 2003-2009 Industrial Design, Burg Giebichenstein, Halle 2007-2008 Erasmus studies at the Design Academy Eindhoven Internships: 2008 Bellini Design Studio, Milan Products: Stellvertreter for Nils Holger Moormann, Aschau im Chiemgau Concrete bowl series "frisch ausgeschalt" for Betoniu, Leipzig (smow)blog: Why Industrial Design? Stephan Schulz: It sort of just developed. I've always built things and experimented with different
read moreEffortless and relaxed as this all seems, our reality is a life in constant motion as we move from one appointment to the next. As one press release closes, another opens. As it were. And along the way we meet an awful lot of excellent design from designers who simply can't command the publicity of a Philippe Starck, Verner Panton or Jasper Morrison. Which isn't really fair as the work is often just as good. And so in our new, irregular, series (smow)Introducing we aim to present some of
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