29 April to 15 August 2021 - Hella Jongerius: Woven Cosmos - Berliner Festspiele
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Gropius Bau Hella Jongerius: Woven Cosmos 29 April to 15 August 2021 — Press Release — About Hella Jongerius — Q&A Woven Cosmos — Many Hands. Many Minds. A Conversation between Hella Jongerius and Stephanie Rosenthal — Press Images — Further Information and Contact — Funders, Partners and Media Partners
Gropius Bau Press Release Hella Jongerius: Woven Cosmos 29 April to 15 August 2021 Woven Cosmos, the solo exhibition by artist and designer Hella Jongerius, will open from April 29 2021 at the Gropius Bau. The research initiated for Woven Cosmos will continue to develop, with the Jongeriuslab team working at the Gropius Bau every day for the duration of the show. Hella Jongerius: “Through Woven Cosmos I try to understand the cultural meaning of weaving beyond materials and technique. This is also deeply linked to the challenges of our time: questions of sustainability, social responsibility and spirituality. For instance: what can be the healing function of objects?” Stephanie Rosenthal, curator and director of the Gropius Bau: “Hella Jongerius is such an important part of the Gropius Bau’s programme as she combines research and artistic practice, linking the history of the institution as an applied arts school to thinking about the future. Her activity perfectly realises the Gropius Bau’s interest in being a site for production: an innovative institution where art is not only shown but also made.” Clara Meister, curator: “An integral part of Woven Cosmos is the continuous active work and research of Jongeriuslab in the exhibition space. It is an open process thinking about the future, inviting us to participate in the exhibition and to reconsider our relation to objects.” Trained as an industrial designer, Jongerius asks essential questions such as: how can we design a sustainable future through traditional crafts? How can objects be used to heal, inspire and connect? Often focussing on the cultural, economic, technical and philosophical aspects of textiles and weaving, Jongerius’s installations emphasize open- ended process over fixed result. Arising from a durational engagement with the Gropius Bau space that began in autumn 2020 when Jongerius moved her studio to the Gropius Bau, Woven Cosmos shows new works and a user- activated installation. At the heart of Jongerius’s work is the link between craft and industry, as well as the reparative potential of making. Her research into ancient cultural technologies such as weaving offers much-needed perspectives on prescient questions of responsibility and sustainability. Informed by twenty-five years of work with textile, Woven Cosmos is rooted in Jongerius’s original philosophy spanning design, sustainability and spiritualism. Through her open-ended on-site research Jongerius asks us to reconsider how we relate to the objects, our world and one another. Woven Cosmos is the result of collaborative research with the Berlin- based Jongeriuslab design team. Jongerius has created a number of installations that fill the rooms of the Gropius Bau, including a loom for three-dimensional weaving, a synergetic method for spinning yarn and woven structures proposed as architectural elements. The show is closely entwined with the history of the Gropius Bau, once a Museum and School of the Decorative Arts with its own workshops, a place where different disciplines came together. Taking a cue from this history,
Gropius Bau Jongerius brought her Jongeriuslab design studio to the Gropius Bau to produce work on site in the months leading up to the exhibition.
Gropius Bau About Hella Jongerius Hella Jongerius (1963, the Netherlands) is one of the world’s leading designers, known for her research-driven approach and vigorous work on uniting craftsmanship and industrial production, infusing mass produced objects with imperfection, sensibility and character. She founded her Jongeriuslab design studio in 1993, and has worked on commissioned projects for Vitra, Maharam, the interior design of the Delegates’ Lounge of the United Nations Headquarters and the cabin interiors for the Dutch airline KLM. She has also initiated many independent projects, with exhibitions at the Design Museum London (2017), Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (2017), the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (2018) and Lafayette Anticipations in Paris (2019). Jongerius’s work can be found in the permanent collections including the MoMA, the Centre Pompidou, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Since 2009 she has lived and worked in Berlin. Woven Cosmos is curated by Stephanie Rosenthal with Clara Meister We hope the exhibition and associated programme can run as planned, but some changes may be necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gropius Bau Q&A Woven Cosmos 1. General What is Woven Cosmos about? With Woven Cosmos Hella Jongerius investigates the cultural meaning of weaving, beyond materials and technique. For this show, she has produced new work, reflecting on the cultural, economic, technical and philosophical aspects of textiles and weaving. This is also deeply linked to the challenges of our time: questions of sustainability, social responsibility and spirituality. Why has the Gropius Bau invited Hella Jongerius to develop this exhibition? Woven Cosmos is an important part of the Gropius Bau’s programme especially due to Hella Jongerius’s combination of research and artistic practice. Her project links the history of the institution as an applied arts school and museum to thinking about the future, asking essential questions about sustainability and art’s applications. Her activity perfectly realises the Gropius Bau’s interest in being a site for production: an innovative institution where art is not only shown but also made. Hella Jongerius has worked with textile for over twenty-five years. Her artistic process is always open-ended, and the research into ancient cultural technologies such as weaving has developed over the course of many years. Recently this work has led Jongerius to questions of ecological responsibility and sustainability. The work in the show is also the result of collaborative research with many external experts in the Jongeriuslab design studio. What inspired Hella Jongerius? Hella Jongerius is inspired, amongst many other things, by new theory and ideas about objects and design, including works such as The Craftsman (1997) by Richard Sennett, What Things Do (2005) by Peter-Paul Verbeek. She is inspired by the urgencies in society we face and the role objects can play in healing the toxic relationship we have with our objects, materials and planet. How did the design process come about? Hella Jongerius follows her intuition: putting doing and making first. Leave your head and let your body do the work. This gets interesting with weaving, where you have to plan in advance what you are going to do: textile is a material and structure that you can shape to fit your specific needs. You start with a yarn, and then there are so many options. Jongerius is in dialogue with technology, the loom, the machine. Her research is also a conversation with others. Young, talented designers with clever hands and abstract minds help her build ideas. Why is this exhibition important for the Gropius Bau? The show is closely entwined with the history of the Gropius Bau, once a Museum and School of the Decorative Arts with its own workshops, a place where different disciplines came together. Taking a cue from this history, Jongerius brought her Jongeriuslab design studio to the Gropius Bau to produce work on site in the months leading up to the exhibition. This exhibition creates new ways of engaging with design and artistic research through collaboration, activation and innovation – all happening inside the Gropius Bau building.
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In Woven Cosmos, Jongerius sheds light on the healing function of
objects. How can they be employed to cure exactly?
Hella Jongerius believes objects can have a transformative influence on
people, and this is how they heal.
Hella Jongerius: “I am interested in the powerful relationships we
develop with the objects around us, on a spiritual but also practical
level. I want to bring individuality, imperfection and humanity to
processes of standardised industrial production.”
In a way, imperfection is healing for industrial design. We cannot
escape the fact that we still live in a physical world that is
inefficient – as humans we are inefficient. So I think it is very
important that we have a human scale when thinking or talking about our
objects. Materials always have political and social implications.”
Various works in the show express this idea in different ways:
The works Space Amulets are part of Jongerius's exploration of
healing and of the transformative power that objects have on
people and spaces.
The Extended Jugs series prompts reflection on ideas of repairing
and considers how visible breakages and objects' histories
determine their beauty.
Guardian Dolls reference an ancient relationship between humans
and objects, namely the special relationship between children and
dolls, as they offer comfort and protection.
For the work Grain Wheel, grains of sand that are leftover from a
previous artwork were melted and blown to form glass elements.
Success should be measured by the ability to achieve a balance,
not by growth and using virgin materials.
2. Spiritualism
How does the show relate to mythological and historical narratives
around weaving?
In ancient times the spindle was used not only to spin yarns but also to
understand the cycles of the sun and the moon; to spin the fates, to
understand life and death. Such metaphors are also still present in the
language that we use, derived from weaving. In the Anthropocene epoch,
the sun, moon and weather are no longer the only weaving forces at work;
humans also turn the spindles, thereby influencing the environment
Hella Jongerius: “We’ve ruined the planet but we can design our way out.
In that sense, I see the Cosmic Loom as a metaphor for weaving a new
texture for the world.”
What was the purpose of the séance meeting with various shamans in
advance of the show?
The ground we are working on, the building and its history and
architecture provides all kinds of information. Hella Jongerius has
tried to include this in the show. In February, Hella Jongerius
organised a spiritual séance with shamans from Berlin, to ask for data
from spirits. The atrium of the building was used as the main altar,
using the signs which are still visible in the atrium of the four
different wind directions; north, south, east and west. Jongerius
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received a lot of interesting information this way for building up her
works. “In general, the building felt vital,” she said.
The data gathered was used in the show. For instance, the threads of the
Cosmic Loom refer to the seven days of the week. Thursday and Saturday
and their associated planets Jupiter and Saturn play a significant role
in the installation. Before the exhibition, the fibres and colours were
chosen with shamans inside the Gropius Bau – their understanding of
astronomical and spiritual cycles of time was thus incorporated into
this work.
3. Collaboration & Activation
Will people be working in the exhibition rooms during opening hours?
Hella Jongerius and her team will be working in the exhibition every
day, further developing the work and research that was initiated for the
show. The research does not end when the exhibition opens.
What installations will be interactive and how will they be activated?
Dancing a yarn is an interactive installation with which members of my
team will produce work while the exhibition is on. Visitors will be able
to participate. Dancing a Yarn is created every day throughout the
exhibition. Visitors are invited to participate in the production
process actively. Similar to dancing around a maypole, the yarn is
supposed to materialise while the people are dancing Using braiding
machines and tools that Jongeriuslab developed especially for the
exhibition. The ropes created during this process will grow to become
rope ladders that extend outside the windows.
How does this collaborative aspect relate to the history of weaving?
The centuries-old practices of weaving and spinning are intertwined with
notions of togetherness. Before industrialisation, people spent the long
hours of textile production together, which rooted social structures
therein. Several hands work on a single product, which consequently
becomes infused with stories and conversations. Collective craft is
often considered to have a healing effect. As textile can be so
technical, the challenge is to make this meaningful for everyone. I want
people, and their movements, characters and patterns, to become part of
the work.
4. 3D Weaving
What is 3D weaving?
‘Traditional’ weaving involves a warp yarn that is interwoven with a
weft yarn, resulting in two-dimensional textile. You can make textile 3D
by cutting and sewing it, or folding it over a shape (like a frame or
skeleton). Hella Jongerius is interested in making the process of
weaving truly 3D, not just by using textile as a 'skin' to cover a
volume, but by making a woven construct in three dimensions.
What are the two types of 3D Weaving developed for the show?
For the show, Hella Jongerius experimented with two sorts of three-
dimensional weaving:
In one of them, the Unfoldable Cubes, they weave ‘flat’ textile
patterns on a digital jacquard loom, which they can weave in
multiple layers because we split the warp. This still looks like a
flat textile when it comes off the loom, but then they can cut
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parts open and unfold the different layers, thereby creating a
three-dimensional structure.
The other method, which is called Matrix Modules, is to weave in
three dimensions on the loom itself. For this technique Jongerius
developed our own loom, the Space Loom #2, which allows us to make
the warp move in different directions, and the weft yarn to weave
around this. So the weft yarn doesn’t just move from left to
right, but can weave in all directions.
How does 3 D weaving contribute to a more sustainable production?
Woven structures are the strongest and lightest construct. Therefore 3D
weaving has a lot of potential for replacing heavy construction methods
which also use a lot of resources (for example brick or concrete). It is
also about using the minimal amount of material to create a volume.
How are you incorporating solar cells in this work?
Hella Jongerius has started to work with laminated plastic strips with
embedded solar cells. Solar panels are always flat, stiff objects. What
if you can weave 3D shapes with solar stripes? She is also experimenting
with having the solar cells power something, like movement, moving with
the sun, or opening up. This has the potential to be applied in various
ways: facades of buildings, balcony, unfolded cars. It could warm up the
textile, or light up, power a ventilator or a propeller. Textiles always
enfold something; they are always a passive skin. But here textile has
agency. By unfolding, standing up by itself, and by embedding a power
source in the material, you can almost create something that feels
autonomous and alive.
5. Individual works
Woven Systems
For Woven Systems, Hella Jongerius experimented with yarns, weaves,
textures and weaving´s fundamental logic—the intersection of threads in
a grid. The interplay of transparent and dense layers characterises this
series. These continue to produce new images and contexts. The beauty of
weaving is its rigidity: it forces you to think in systems, in grids,
layers and connections. Systems are the way humans make sense of the
world. In the west, we isolate and reduce processes to categories, rules
and formulas. We impose a linear logic on a circular planet. Our
economy, society and environment are all interdependent systems that
make up a whole: the health and vitality of one affects the other. Food
systems, political systems, weather systems, fashion cycles, art
networks, social structures are all connected. When we design and
create, we need to work within these systems to produce meaning. Systems
enable but can also confine, restrict and intimidate. It is no wonder
that in between all of these systems at work, we sometimes feel
entangled and trapped. How do we relate to these webs of connections
that are beyond our control?
Angry Animals
In many of her works, Jongerius engages with animals and the unequal
relationship humans have established with them. She believes that
dismantling the prevailing hierarchy between humans, plants, animals and
objects would have a healing effect. Objects have the ability to express
the unspeakable or inexpressible. This quality makes them silent
partners that become catalysts and protagonists when activated. Many of
the animals in Jongerius´s works seem friendly; they are often lifelike
recreations that she combines with objects, such as a table or—in the
most recent series—a vase. With the Angry Animals series, Jongerius
Gropius Bau draws attention to animals´ increasingly precarious situation and criticises their objectification. Frog Table Frog Table is the union of an everyday object and the sculpture of an oversized frog. This questions functionality with this work—the principal criterion of industrial design. The work highlights the purely practical use of everyday objects and facilitates a relationship with the animal at eye level. It reflects on the apparent opposites natural- artificial and human-object, and their relationship. In her view, objects are fundamental to human reception, identity, and socialisation. Hella Jongerius: “With the Frog Table I wanted to turn decoration from 2D into 3D – to scale it up. I thought, `What if a table includes a creature so that the table and you are not alone´. It was about having no hierarchy between animals and objects. Yet animals are objectified in our lives. We eat them. All of the animals in my work were always friendly. But their position is so terrible. That’s why I started making pottery again for this exhibition; I felt the urge to create object animals again, and they turned out to be very angry.” Woven Windows In the Woven Windows series, Jongerius uses the motif of a window to explore the possibilities of weaving as an act of painting. The Jacquard weaving technique turns thread into a three-dimensional tool that can be used to “paint”. The window is a famous motif in painting—its structure resembles a frame, allowing viewers to look either outside or inside or into a painting. The window is thus a symbol of seeing
MANY HANDS
STEPHANIE ROSENTHAL: Wonderful, to sit here in your
studio, Hella. I’ve brought with me a selection of books that
are quite relevant to our discussions, which I might read
MANY MINDS
quotes from during this conversation. To me it feels fitting
that you’re sitting by the windows and next to your new
works, which also could be windows. You’ve realised these
over the last year for your exhibition at the Gropius Bau.
You’ve made exhibitions since 2003, primarily in design muse-
STEPHANIE ROSENTHAL
HELLA JONGERIUS AND
A CONVERSATION BETWEEN
ums. Your exhibition at the Gropius Bau follows your 2019
show at Lafayette Anticipations in Paris, where you entered
into the realm of contemporary art exhibitions. I wondered
what it means for you as an artist to have also worked so
closely with industry, including clients such as KLM and Vitra?
HELLA JONGERIUS: Here we have the real windows
and the woven windows. To answer your question, I started
out as a designer, but my working method is like the pro-
cess of an artist with a social and political agenda – as
an author. My work is always placed within the current
time and reflects what is happening in our society, as
well as actively questioning my profession. I also question
the use of materials and production systems. Working in
remodelled the North Delegates Lounge at their New York Headquarters. With a back-
Her tactile and sculptural objects reflect on our relationship to physical matter
are the principles that guide her research and design projects. After graduating
experimental processes. Subsequently moving to Germany’s capital city in search of
Hella Jongerius is internationally recognised for making striking design pieces.
from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 1993, Jongerius joined the conceptual Dutch
to go beyond functional utility. The concept of the “misfit” and “incompleteness”
objects. As an industrial designer, she has worked with major clients, from the
Woven Cosmos. I spoke with Jongerius to consider the relationship between craft
Having always aspired to formulate new relationships between objects and users,
an ergonomic and technical perspective merged with an anthropological approach.
the same year, she founded Jongeriuslab in Rotterdam, a design studio that uses
different working modes and approaches, in 2009 she established Jongeriuslab in
Berlin, whose team have worked closely with the Gropius Bau on Hella Jongerius:
ground in occupational therapy and carpentry, she has engaged with design from
design collective Droog, which is known for its vibrant approach to design. In
the field of industrial design, there are lots of boundaries,
she has an innovative approach to both the process of design and use value of
airline KLM and the furniture company Vitra, to the United Nations, where she
but every restriction is a new challenge to be creative.
I wanted to work in the design world to change something
on a larger scale; if we can change something in the
industrial realm, the output is broader than when work-
and technology and how this can best serve a changing world.
ing with individual objects. I want to bring individuality,
imperfection and humanity to processes of standardised
industrial production. We have to cure what I feel is a sick
relationship that we have with our environment by fixing
the way in which objects and materials are produced.
SR: In several interviews you mentioned initially wanting to
become a hippie. This comment really stayed with me because
it is very telling when looking at your career as an established
industrial designer. You take a lot of risks and you’re not afraid
to leave things behind, to start something new and be free.
HJ: I’m a free spirit and I question the things around me.
I was raised in the 1970s, a period when you could see
counter-cultural movements on television and hippies
demonstrating. I wanted to be a hippie and change some-
thing. I was raised as a Calvinist with a moral conscious-
ness. I felt I wanted to add something to the world by
being a rebel, a feminist. In the 1970s and 1980s, my first
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20job was working for a self-initiated platform for women
SPACE LOOM #2, Detail / detail, 2019-fortlaufend / ongoing,
Foto / Photo: Jongeriuslab
who were interested in technical skills – jobs like plumbing
and electricity. It was here that I learnt to be a carpenter.
I was raised with three brothers and was a tomboy, so
I was faced with gender issues early on.
SR: You step beyond the structure of what constitutes design
to explore changing worlds. I feel that you challenge what
an industrial designer can be, bringing together creative
aspects that seem incongruous. For example, you meld craft
and the technology that is used in the design industry. To me
this suggests merging the idiosyncratic with the industrial.
HJ: Yes, I like pushing boundaries to find the fluidity in
grey areas.
SR: It seems to me that you have a strong sense of responsi-
bility. This will – to have an impact on the world – is something
I feel we should increasingly re-integrate into the art world.
Of course art can change things by being poetic and stimulating
the senses. However, to me art has always had the responsi-
bility of enhancing critical thinking, which goes further than
just rethinking how we look at things. This can undoubtedly
also have a meaningful impact on how we act daily. The
boundaries within industry remind me of the limitations of
social or even bureaucratic structures. We might think they
cannot be changed, but they can. You challenge the process of
industrial design. I feel this is something we can do with
exhibitions – showing how we can change existing systems,
and we can only change them by believing in the human
aspects of systems.
HJ: I totally agree. A museum can be a platform for a
designer like me to conduct deeper research, to get lost,
to use my intuition by finding answers or raising more
questions, to reach people. I want to raise awareness
about the layers that are present in objects: the cultural
meaning of an object and the material topic in terms of
how objects are produced. Industrial production systems
have huge socio-political implications. Objects (with their
inherent layers) are now mainly communicating to con-
sumers via the market and being new is seen as the main
source of value. I see the museum or university as a way
of questioning research and critical thinking; as a means
of communicating with people and encouraging them
to rethink the relationship that we have with our objects.
Given the climate crisis, we need a huge revolution in
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22how we approach objects stability to a woven structure. We use them together
SR: You have always put significant focus on research. With with a conductive yarn that connects the strips with
your exhibition at the Gropius Bau, we have provided a electronic elements. This offers a wealth of new possibili-
physical space for this research and, as such, activated it for a ties, visual as well as functional. We can create light
public, reaching beyond product. I feel that your interest in but sturdy woven solar structures that can unfold when
weaving is related to this. When and where did your research they are touched by sunlight. Imagine how this could
on weaving begin? change the look of all those fields full of solar panels.
HJ: I have designed upholstery and worked with carpets They now look like flat black glass shields, this concept
on an industrial scale for 30 years. About three years could change them into fields of art sculptures. Or we
ago I took a sabbatical so that I could focus on research. could weave a balcony that pops up when the sun shines.
I wondered what I had missed by only working with We are just starting this research, it has a lot of poten-
industrial weaving, which I felt had become narrow and tial to connect our weave expertise and engineering with
economically driven. The boundaries started to become my personal handwriting.
too tight. Just before I started my sabbatical I received SR: Healing is also rooted in your work – in form, materials
an invitation from Lafayette Anticipations to do an and design. You never begin with a white board but, instead,
exhibition and I decided to work on weaving. I bought a look into the past to use what was there before. The scars
digital Jacquard loom and started the process for a year. of humanity’s past are very obvious when you look back. Con-
I began to think intensely about weaving, with all its necting these with the future presents a form of healing.
cultural and social meanings, its metaphors and potential Your work is not trying to pretend it’s new. Take, for example,
futures. I then decided to build a loom that was struc- the series Extended Jugs (1997), where porcelain jugs have
tured for 3D weaving, and subsequently opened a work- extended parts made out of polyurethane – a material added
shop and space for learning in Berlin with other design to an archetypal form to change it. To me this underlines
weavers. Weaving is a huge topic. I wanted to dive even the idea of repair as a designer, which is very much connected
deeper into the topic when I received the invitation from to this idea of healing.
you. The idea of a woven cosmos was present early HJ: In a way, imperfection is healing for industrial design.
on in the making of this exhibition and I wanted to look We also find imperfection in the digital world, although
at weaving in terms of it’s full potential: the spiritual everything seems so efficient. We cannot escape the fact
aspect as a method of healing, it’s technical aspect and that we still live in a physical world that is inefficient – as
the future potential in 3D weaving, as well as my artistic humans we are inefficient. So I think it is very important
handwriting with woven paintings. I believe objects can that we have a human scale when thinking or talking
have a transformative influence on people, and this is about our objects. Materials always have political and
how they heal. I am interested in the powerful relation- social implications.
ships that we develop with objects around us, both SR: Through the process of preparing the exhibition, I have
spiritually and practically. looked again at the objects that surround us, our relation-
SR: I am fascinated by your thinking on weaving’s connection ships with them and the period of overconsumption in which
to a sustainable future. In the past, weaving was actually we are living. The objects that we live with define us. The
the beginning of the computer and coding. I feel it’s important book Museum Objects, Health and Healing: The Relationship
to consider how we can work differently and how we can between Exhibitions and Wellness, by Brenda Cowan, Ross
now think into the future. Last year you started to talk about Laird and Jason McKeown (2020) talks about the primacy of
your ideas for new application areas in relation to solar cells. the human need for relationships with objects and how
What stage have you reached with this research? these are fundamental for our mental health. I was mainly
HJ: We are working with strips of solar cells. These influenced by the opinions of the authors “that objects keep
strips are flexible and at the same time strong, lending us well, often without our knowledge and that our under-
25
24standing of the psychological underpinning of the human-
object relationship helps us to see how museums can be places
of health and healing.” 1 It examines how trauma can be
overcome by giving, seeing, donating and carrying objects.
HJ: And getting rid of objects.
SR: In recent years Donny Haraway’s Staying with the Trouble
(2016) has been like my Bible and I’m always trying to con-
nect it to my work, the museum and exhibitions making. She
writes: “We – all of us on Terra – live in disturbing times,
mixed-up times, troubling and turbid times.” 2 The task for us
working in a public institution is to not to look away and
not to think that we can change the world, I think it is rather
this process of not giving up, which Haraway asks for, that
is crucial.
HJ: I was thinking also about the philosopher Bruno
Latour who speaks about all these things and about how
there is no hierarchy between humans, plants, animals,
things and objects. I like that very much (that there is no
hierarchy). I think that has a healing aspect to it. Also,
a book by Graham Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology:
A New Theory of Everything (2018), talks about real objects
Healing: The Relationship between Exhibitions and Wellness, New York City
and sensual objects: a real object can only connect to
Brenda Cowan, Ross Laird und Jason McKeown: Museum Objects, Health and
a real object if there is a sensual object in-between. So I’m
really trying to understand what is a sensual quality.
SR: When you talk about the holistic I also think about the
“cosmic loom”, which connects us to this. It also relates
LATICE, aus der Serie / from the series WOVEN SYSTEMS, 2021,
deeply to connectivity, to working together and showing the
process of working.
HJ: Yes, the cosmic loom. It was very fascinating reading
about this. Ancient people used the spindle not only
to spin yarns but also to understand the cycles of the sun
(Routledge Museum Studies), 2020, p. 2.
and the moon; to spin the fates; to understand life and
death. Such metaphors are also still present in the language
that we use, which comes from weaving. We’ve ruined
the planet but we can design our way out of this mess.
In that sense, I see the cosmic loom as a metaphor for
Foto / Photo: Jongeriuslab
weaving a new texture for the world, of navigating fate
by choosing your yarn in our Anthropocene world.
SR: Weaving and the loom is a metaphor – it really connects
us all and brings things together. It also has a certain level
of risk because you cannot know what the outcome will be.
HJ: That’s why I’m interested in building looms again.
A loom was the first industrial machine and the start of
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26the Industrial Revolution. I want to make looms again, but help us to fulfil the responsibility of care.
human machines, not industrial-efficient looms where you HJ: It comes in layers. Maybe you have smaller answers
can’t be creative or where knowledge about textiles gets to smaller questions. You don’t eat the elephant all at
lost. My new looms can be activated in a group. Weaving is once, only bit by bit. That’s also how I see my work: as
writing with the body in very repetitive movements. teamwork where there are many hands and many heads.
SR: You were also mentioning the animal and the importance SR: You’re currently conducting intensive research through
of the animal in your work and it was particularly important the cultural podium; will there be a moment where you
to you to have your earlier work Frog Table (2009) in the go back to challenge the industry?
exhibition. How is the frog table connected to your earlier work HJ: It’s true. It’s not only about questioning, it’s also about
and to the idea of angry animals in the present? landing again. Flying and then landing. I now see that
HJ: Over the past few years I haven’t used animals as a multiaxial weaving techniques could be a way of landing
topic, but with the frog table I wanted to turn decoration in this specific context. Textile is both the strongest
from being two-dimensional into three-dimensional – to and lightest of constructs: we are engineering folded
scale it up. I thought, “What if a table includes a creature constructions by creating multiaxial weaving, which have
so that the table and you are not alone.” It was about embedded power sources. In other words, we are making
having no hierarchy between animals and objects. Yet modular structures as pliable architecture. We can
animals are objectified in our lives. We eat them. All of the create volume and use far less material compared to, say,
animals in my work so far have always seemed friendly. brick or concrete. We must ask question like: how can
But actually their position is so dramatic. That’s why I you read an object? What are the relations within an
started making pottery again for this exhibition; I felt the object? This is knowledge. It’s a philosophy. I’ve learned
urge to create object animals once more, and they turned something in the search with my hands and in techniques
Donna J. Haraway: Staying with the Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene,
out to be very angry. but, also, in searching my thoughts. I have been building
SR: The Frog Table (2009) is a sculpture at the same time as on a library of thoughts. I have an overview of where are
being a table. The animal is the one who is observing you we going, particularly in relation to this critical question:
while you sit at the table. The frog is a metaphor for transfor- what do we need in the world? It’s the future.
mation. With the new ceramic work Angry Animals (2021), SR: Yes, to me that is very pertinent. As you say, it’s a future.
you’re reflecting what you feel right now, which is to do with
Durham and London (Duke University Press), 2016, p. 1.
the urgency in the world – a moment in which we’re suddenly
all aware of the environmental crisis. Artists have spoken about
such urgency since the 1960s, but now I think there is really
this general awakening. The consumer wants what is sustainable.
HJ: Yes, the industry follows what the consumers buy.
So they are the ones who have the real power to change
something in the world. And we need the governments
to set the rules in a way that is totally different to now
(when they are set according to a commercial economy
and capitalist system).
SR: I do think that culture plays an important role in question-
ing what we’re doing and how we question the form of
caring. It is not a question of perfection or imperfection. When
we talk about a process of healing at the Gropius Bau, it is
a question of how we actually care and who do we care about?
We are in this context of being entangled and I think it will
2
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28Gropius Bau Press Images Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Installation View (2021) © Gropius Bau / Hella Jongerius, VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Laura Fiorio Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Installation View, Cosmic Loom (2021) © Gropius Bau / Hella Jongerius, VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Laura Fiorio Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Installation View, Cosmic Loom (2021), © Gropius Bau / Hella Jongerius, VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Laura Fiorio
Gropius Bau Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Installation View, Dancing a Yarn (2021) © Gropius Bau / Hella Jongerius, VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Laura Fiorio Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Installation View, Woven Windows and Frog Table(2021), © Gropius Bau / Hella Jongerius, VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Laura Fiorio Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Installation View, Woven Window (2021), © Gropius Bau / Hella Jongerius, VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Laura Fiorio
Gropius Bau Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Woven Window, detail (2021), © Gropius Bau / Hella Jongerius, VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Magdalena Lepka Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Installation View, Spaceloom 2 (2021), © Gropius Bau / Hella Jongerius, VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Laura Fiorio
Gropius Bau Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Spaceloom 2 (2021), © Jogeriuslab, Photo: Jongeriuslab Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Installation View, Pliable Architecture (2021) © Gropius Bau / Hella Jongerius, VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Laura Fiorio
Gropius Bau Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Installation View, Pliable Architecture (2021), © Gropius Bau / Hella Jongerius, VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Laura Fiorio Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Pliable Architecture (2021), © Hella Jongerius / VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Magdalena Lepka
Gropius Bau Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Pliable Architecture (2021), © Hella Jongerius / VG Bild-Kunst 2021, courtesy: Hella Jongerius, Photo: Magdalena Lepka Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Installation View, Woven Systems (2021) © Gropius Bau / Hella Jongerius, VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Laura Fiorio
Gropius Bau Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Woven Systems, 2021 © Hella Jongerius / VG Bild-Kunst 2021, courtesy: Hella Jongerius, Photo: Magdalena Lepka Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Installation View, Angry Animals (2021) © Gropius Bau / Hella Jongerius, VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Laura Fiorio
Gropius Bau Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Angry Animals (2021), © Hella Jongerius, VG-Bildkunst 2021, courtesy: Hella Jongerius, Photo: Magdalena Lepka Hella Jongerius, At work at the EKWC (2021), © Hella Jongerius / VG Bild-Kunst 2021, courtesy: Jongeriuslab, Photo: Jongeriuslab
Gropius Bau Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Weaving (2020), © Hella Jongerius / VG Bild-Kunst 2021, courtesy: Jongeriuslab, Photo: Jongeriuslab Hella Jongerius, Woven Cosmos – Healing Objects (2020), © Hella Jongerius / VG Bild-Kunst 2021, courtesy: Jongeriuslab, Photo: Jongeriuslab Hella Jongerius, Portrait (2020), © Hella Jongerius / VG Bild-Kunst 2021, courtesy: Maharam, Photo: Nick Ballón
Gropius Bau Hella Jongerius, 2021 © Gropius Bau / Hella Jongerius, VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Laura Fiorio Hella Jongerius in the installation Cosmic Loom (2021), © Gropius Bau / Hella Jongerius, VG Bild-Kunst 2021, Photo: Laura Fiorio
Gropius Bau Further Information and Contact Press Images A selection of image material is available here in printable resolution. For media coverage of the exhibition Hella Jongerius: Woven Cosmos (29 April – 15 August 2021), the images may be downloaded and used without license to announce the exhibition prior to and during the exhibition period. Please note that images may not be cropped, overprinted or manipulated. The use of the images is free as long as sources are properly credited. Login Details Username: pressemgb Password: atrium2021 Press releases, press dates and digital press kits gropiusbau.de/press Press contact Sander Manse Send / Receive sander@sendreceive.eu +49 170 473 7129 Gropius Bau Anne Wriedt presse@gropiusbau.de Opening Hours The Gropius Bau is closed from 24 April 2021 Unfortunately, due to the health situation and new emergency corona measures signed into effect on 22 April 2021, the Gropius Bau will be forced to close as of Saturday, 24 April 2021. Until circumstances allow our re-opening, please explore our digital exhibitions at gropiusbau.de. The Gropius Bau will re-open as soon as permitted and we look forward to welcoming you on-site then Tickets Tickets can be purchased on site at the Gropius Bau and in our online shop: gropiusbau.de/tickets
Gropius Bau Funders, Partners and Media Partners The Gropius Bau is supported by This exhibition has been funded by Partners Media partners
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