Newsletter Preview April - Engl

 
Dear readers

Did you know that sales of tracksuit bottoms rose by 44 per cent during the pandemic whilst the fashion industry was plunged into a serious crisis during this time? If we are to believe Karl Lagerfeld, who once said, »Anyone who wears tracksuit bottoms has lost control of their lives«, then this development points to a worrying state of affairs in society. Or perhaps, in times of monotonous days spent working from home, there was simply a lack of suitable occasions or inspiration to abandon our casual home wear. The weissensee school of art and design berlin offers both with a series of stimulating fashion events to mark the start of the summer semester. 

»seefashion« invites the public to a Fashion Festival in the university on 9 April and shows how varied, imaginative and future-oriented the response of fashion to societal change can be – even in times of pandemic. As a precursor to the Fashion Festival, the exhibition »seefashion22 X Platte« will be presenting from 1 April some of the students’ bachelor and master’s final-year assignments and, in so doing, will provide a perspective on the topics of sustainability and locality, which are amongst the festival’s key themes. Playing with perspectives in disconcerting times – this is the idea that is important to Laurin Schuler in his new collection, which he is presenting in the Reinbeckhallen on 10 April under the title of » Schein und Schimmer« (Brightness and Lustre). And we would particularly recommend the event »Jitdam Kapeel*« in the Humboldt Forum from 2 to 4 April, which shows how illuminative and clarifying different angles of vision can be. You can find out below in this newsletter what else we have lined up for you in our April programme.  

Your weissensee school of art and design berlin

Jitdam Kapeel *
Interventions
Jitdam Kapeel *
2 to 4 April 2022, Humboldt Forum, Berlin
»looking at the past – to understand the present – in order to face the future« is the title of the project which Méitaka Kendall-Lekka from the College of the Marshall Islands is running as part of her visiting professorship in conjunction with Professor Hannes Brunner at the weissensee school of art and design berlin. Students from both universities engaged with both the colonial German past of the Marshall Islands and with the endangered habitats of the Pacific atolls and explored artistically the topics of colonialism, climate change, atomic tests and environmental destruction. What has emerged are performances, models and installations which will be exhibited on 2, 3 and 4 April in the hall of the Humboldt Forum dedicated to boats from Oceania.The project is a collaboration between the College of the Marshall Islands, the Ethnological Museum Berlin, the Humboldt Forum and the weissensee school of art and design berlin. 
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Fashion Festival
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9 April 2022, 7 pm to 10 pm, weissensee school of art and design berlin
This year, seefashion is inviting the public to a Fashion Festival at the weissensee school of art and design berlin and is presenting final-year collections by bachelor and master’s students from 2021 and 2022 in a variety of settings. Whether as fashion shows, performances or fashion films – the final-year assignments of the 25 students inspire with their visionary and imaginative aesthetics. At the same time, the socially critical drive of their work encourages us to pause and reflect. It questions societal norms and gender identity and offers alternative concepts to socio-cultural clichés. For the students, the key question here is how the horizon for a liveable future can be broadened by the design process and the wearing of clothes. Registration in advance is required. 
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seefashion22 X Platte
The world is in the throes of change, and the fashion industry too. This is also reflected in the end-of-course collections of the Department for Fashion Design at the weissensee school of art and design berlin. In the exhibition ‘seefashion22 X Platte’, Platte Berlin is presenting some of the students’ final-year assignments as a precursor to the Fashion Festival and, in so doing, provides a perspective on the topics of sustainability and locality, which are amongst the festival’s key themes. The exhibition runs from 1 to 7 April 2022. 
an invitation from +dimensions 
The research project ‘+dimensions’, which is looking into new, hybrid teaching formats and learning spaces at the weissensee school of art and design berlin, is inviting three artists and/or theorists and designers in the summer semester 2022 to reflect on the interrelations between research and aesthetic practice from different viewpoints. On 25 April 2022, the guest speaker will be the artist, curator and theorist Verena Melgarejo Weinandt from Vienna. 
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Events by students and professors
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In Situ? 
An outdoor installation »Locked Up«, which was conceived by Professor Nasan Tur on the occasion of the exhibition »In Situ? Art in public spaces«, has been on view in Nuremberg since 5 March 2022. The work consists of 13 portraits of a representative selection of journalists, human rights activists or oppositionists who, for political reasons, are currently silenced by means of imprisonment. On 5 April, the Kunsthalle Nürnberg invites the public to an artist’s discussion with the Professor for Spatial Strategies. 
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Schein und Schimmer
On 10 April 2022 at 8 pm, Laurin Schuler is showing his second fashion collection in the Reinbeckhallen. The fashion student from Weißensee plays with various perspectives in these disconcerting times. Depending on the angle of vision of the observer, his shimmering fabrics generate different effects. Using light and brightness, Schuler showcases the multifaceted material lace in ways that surprise. 
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Starkes Duo
The exhibition »Starkes Duo« is presenting for the first time the work of eight renowned female art professors and master pupils – including Professor Friederike Feldmann, Charlotte Dualé and Shira Orion from the weissensee school of art and design berlin – in Haus Kunst Mitte from 29 April to 24 July. The idea behind the exhibition is to explore the topic of women in the world of art and to ask: »How can the artistic canon, which to date is dominated by men, be changed?«
Prizes and Awards
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One Master thesis, three prizes
Nelli Singer, a textile and surface designer specialising in materials research at the weissensee school of art and design berlin, has just won the renowned Materialica Award, the Qlocktwo Prize for Design and a place on the TaDA (Textile and Design Alliance) residency programme for her master‘s assignment ‘Living Beings’. 
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Award for innovative approach
Mirjam von Mengershausen and Taskin Goec from the Department for Fashion Design are amongst the winners of FASHION X CRAFT. The support programme aims to show young designers new pathways in traditional handicrafts and to introduce them to sustainable methods and materials for their future work.
Review and Outlook
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Knitting into the future
On 7 March, the 20th Knitting and Textile Workshop 2022, as part of the Apolda European Design Award 2023, concluded with an impressive but also thought-provoking show. 16 students from the weissensee school of art and design berlin and Trier University of Applied Sciences, engaging with urgent questions concerning our future, put their designs into practice during the workshop week in six local knitwear and clothing companies. 
 
 
Fotonachweise: Foto seefashion: Womenswear Event, Designerin Mirjam von Mengershausen, Photography Anika Zachow, seefashion22 X Platte: Designerin Jung Eun Lee Photography - Tobias Kruse @declaredifferent,  +dimensions lädt ein: Terminal Grotesque open von Jérémy Landes, Velvetyne Type Foundry; Trainer Grotesk von Antoine Elsensohn, In Sit:, Foto: Jutta Missbach, Schein und Schimmer: Foto: Florian Gatzweiler, Preis für innovative Ansätze: Mode: Taskin Goec, Foto: Jen Krause, Apolda European Design Award, Foto: Matthias Eckert