- Exhibition
Subversive Design
- Applied Arts
- Fashion design
- Modedesign
- Productdesign
Dates
11.2.-22.5.2022
Subversive design is critical design. It does not promise direct solutions, but questions the status quo of the classical system.
The exhibition rooms are a warehouse, the objects are placed in functional shelving systems and a robot drives through the aisles transporting products. Instead of unique artistic pieces, the group exhibition shows products by contemporary designers who deal with pressing issues of our time such as climate protection, digitalisation and discrimination.
Subversion means targeted infiltration and describes processes that question existing orders and systems, take up their modes of operation, make them visible and want to change them. Closely related to subversion is the concept of critical design, which is characterised by not wanting to serve a consumer-oriented market, but to question the classic design system, to offer counter-designs and new possibilities for action for the future.
Instead of the individual piece, the exhibition emphasises the serial, because subversive design does not stand out from the mainstream, but is in the middle of it and infiltrates messages. The designers remix, sample, intervene, hack, reverse functionalities and thus question consumer habits and views on topics such as food, fashion, sustainability and climate.
Subversive design is critical design. It does not promise direct solutions, but questions the status quo of the classical system.
The exhibition rooms are a warehouse, the objects are placed in functional shelving systems and a robot drives through the aisles transporting products. Instead of unique artistic pieces, the group exhibition shows products by contemporary designers who deal with pressing issues of our time such as climate protection, digitalisation and discrimination.
Subversion means targeted infiltration and describes processes that question existing orders and systems, take up their modes of operation, make them visible and want to change them. Closely related to subversion is the concept of critical design, which is characterised by not wanting to serve a consumer-oriented market, but to question the classic design system, to offer counter-designs and new possibilities for action for the future.
Instead of the individual piece, the exhibition emphasises the serial, because subversive design does not stand out from the mainstream, but is in the middle of it and infiltrates messages. The designers remix, sample, intervene, hack, reverse functionalities and thus question consumer habits and views on topics such as food, fashion, sustainability and climate.
Curatorial statement
After the pandemic pushed the exhibition "Subversive Design" further and further back, we are now happy to finally show the six finalists.
More than 50 submissions from the fields of fashion, photography, post-internet art, video and product design clearly show how important it is to subvert an existing (design) system and what brilliant counter-designs can emerge from it.
All the products of the selected designers convince with their hidden humour, their shifted perspective on form and function and a new, previously unseen use in everyday life. They challenge the users to change the way they deal with design objects and thus offer a glimpse into the future.
