Invitation to the press talk ‘Craft as Myth. Between Ideal and Real Life‘
28 May 2025Every craft
Every craft requires manual skills, materials, and tools. But there are also myths, assumptions, and imputations that go beyond the obvious aspects of any particular occupation, profession, or trade: Depending on one’s perspective, crafts may be seen, among other things, as traditional, authentic, regional, physical, or individual. The new special exhibition by the Kunstgewerbemuseum entitled ‘Craft as Myth. Between Ideal and Real Life’, which is on show at the Japanisches Palais, explores and interrogates these multifarious narratives. At the same time, it is intended to be an inclusive and interactive forum for becoming acquainted with Saxon and supra-regional craftsmanship extending from the past into the future.
The exhibition has six sections dealing with different themes. These consider the relationships between local and global production, mastery and amateur craftsmanship, one-offs and series, brainwork and manual labour, luxury and necessity, progress and tradition, all from various angles. More than 150 objects, pictures, infographics, sound and film installations, as well as hands-on activity stations, illustrate these diverse dimensions of craftsmanship. Highlights of the exhibition include the famous Herrnhut paper stars, which were patented a hundred years ago, dirndls created by fashion designer Rahmée Wetterich, which combine African and Bavarian influences, and tea bowls from the Staatliche Ethnographische Sammlungen in Leipzig, which have been mended using the Kintsugi repair technique. Both in the selection of objects and in the exhibition design and narrative structure, the Kunstgewerbemuseum places particular emphasis on inclusion and sustainability.
In addition to a workshop and the Fair Fashion Factory, where visitors can get actively involved, there is also an extensive accompanying programme featuring local representatives of business, science, and society, which offers plenty of opportunities to engage in conversation with craftspeople and talk about craftsmanship. Participants include, for example, the Dresden Chamber of skilled Crafts and Trades, the Kreishandwerkerschaft Meissen (Meissen District Crafts Association), and the degree course in Product Design at the Dresden University of Applied Sciences. In so-called DESIGN CAMPUS Labs, the project Dresdner Zimmer also presents itself as a regional crafts platform, and the textile designer and scenographer Hanna Krüger invites visitors to explore the production and processing of silk.
The exhibition is accompanied by a German-language publication entitled ‘Mythos Handwerk. Zwischen Ideal und Alltag’, edited by Matthias Wagner K, Grit Weber, Thomas A. Geisler, Kerstin Stöver, Ute Thomas, Andreas Rudigier and Theresia Anwander and published by Verlag für modern Kunst: 296 pages, € 24, ISBN: 978-3-903439-09-2.
Dresden is the third venue of this co-operative exhibition, which was shown in 2022 at the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt am Main and in 2024 and 2025 at the vorarlberg museum in Bregenz, Austria. Each venue broadens the view of the diversity of craftsmanship and combines the sustainable principle of the travelling exhibition with the individual and regional characteristics of the respective host institution. The Japanisches Palais is familiar to visitors as a venue for exhibitions concerning crafts and craftsmanship, having most recently hosted ‘Ode to Craft’ (2023-24). In September 2025, this tradition will continue with an exhibition on the Richard Bampi Prize and ‘The Blue Swords. Meissen in the GDR’.
Duration
6 June to 21 December 2025
Opening hours
Daily 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., closed on Mondays
Admission
Regular 6 €, Concessions 4,50 €, Groups of 10 or more 5,50 €, from 17 years in class 1 €
Combined Ticket with „The Blue Swords – Meissen in the GDR“, from 20 September 2025:
Regular 10 €, Concessions 7,50 €, Groups of 10 or more 8,50 €
To the Exhibition
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