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
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In 1981 Irish stadium rockers U2 noted of October: "And the trees are stripped bare, Of all they wear" That of course was 1981, before the, then approaching but much less tangible, irreversible consequences of climate change meant that the trees in Ireland, and across Europe, still proudly wear their leaves throughout October. A new reality that, we'd argue, may soon see U2 forced to rename the song 'November'. A reality, and a coming renaming, that sets the final line of the opening verse:
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Globally some 2 billion of us live in a city of more than 500,000 inhabitants.1 A number that is progressively growing. But what does "city" mean? Not lexicographically, but physically, culturally, socially, politically, economically, morally, etc, etc, etc? With the exhibition Die Stadt. Between Skyline and Latrine the smac – Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz attempt to approach possible answers...... A model of Archigram’s 1964 Walking City as part of a discussion on literary
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As the 19th century English poet Robert Browning so very, very, nearly phrased it: Oh, to be in Berlin, Vienna, Chemnitz, 's-Hertogenbosch, or Berlin (again), Now that April's there, And whoever wakes in Berlin, Vienna, Chemnitz, 's-Hertogenbosch, or Berlin (again), Sees, some morning a most interesting, entertaining and instructive sounding architecture and/or design exhibition, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough...... "Hella Jongerius: Woven Cosmos" at the Gropius Bau, Berlin,
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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
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Money, famously, makes the world go round. The world go round. Money makes the world go round How that came to be, the consequences of such, and where that could eventually lead us is currently being explored in the exhibition Geld [Money] at the smac - State Museum for Archaeology in Chemnitz. Geld @ smac – State Museum for Archaeology in Chemnitz "As an institution we want to present exhibitions which deal with the central themes of mankind, and money is such a topic and one with which we
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