Give Love Back
13 September–11 January 2015
Museum Angewandte Kunst
Schaumainkai 17
60594 Frankfurt / Main
Germany
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10am–6pm,
Wednesday 10am–8pm
T +49 69 212 34037
F +49 69 212 30703
“Give Love Back” is a quotation from the book cover of Come On in My Kitchen – The Robert Johnson Book. It epitomizes what the curators Eva Linhart and Mahret Kupka call the “Ata principle”: not the work itself is the centre of attention, but the process and event of its execution, in which the user and visitor play a decisive role. Ata Macias’s activities combine design and fashion, club culture and food, and his name is virtually synonymous with Frankfurt’s growing awareness and reputation as a hip offspace metropolis.
Starting in September 2014, in collaboration with Ata Macias, the Museum Angewandte Kunst will present the first exhibition ever of this Frankfurt DJ / creative entrepreneur and his partners and reflect on the possible significance and presentation of applied art of today.
The exhibition will approach the Ata principle on two levels. On the one hand, documentations of and reflections on earlier Macias works, for example T-shirts, posters, record covers, jewellery and furniture, will await the visitor. They will be complemented, on the other hand, by projects developed especially for the show. This summer—i.e. a few months before the exhibition begins—Macias moreover “clothes” the museum bistro anew in high-quality fabrics from Zimmer+Rohde (a richly traditional local textile manufacturer), thus changing its atmosphere. The exhibition itself will also encompass a concept store created in cooperation with the “2ndhome” company of Frankfurt and deliberately blurring the line between display object and consumer good. The store will be stocked with editions designed and realized by Ata Macias and partners especially for the show. Exceptional products by other makers will enhance the assortment. In yet another section of the exhibition, the museum and Macias will together stage a display of the collection’s historical drinking glasses, among them our 16th-century joke glasses. The latter will be combined with exquisite fruit brandies from Christoph Keller’s Stählemühle distillery and select publications stemming from his activities as a publisher and book designer to create a “Bibliothek des Erlesenen,” a “bibliotheque recherché.”
The exhibition will describe an arc from Ata Macias’s oeuvre to where and how applied art takes place today. It will aim to demonstrate that applied art is a concept borne not as much by material objects as by their contextualization in practice. An observation by the curators Eva Linhart and Mahret Kupka serves well to explain the idea underlying the show: “The object is joined by the active human being, and it is only then, and by that human being, that its meaning in its place-specific use is generated.”
Partners, contributors and sponsors
2ndHome, adidas, American Apparel, Arnold Holstein GmbH, Atelier Goldstein, Christian Beißwenger, Heiner Blum, Boiler Room, brandbook, Buero Marc Ulm, Dennis Busch, Camper, Graziano Capitta, Erinç Cooley, Sandra Doeller, Dornbracht, Druckwerkstätten der Städelschule, Early, Steffen Eberhardt, Effigiella, Carsten Fock, Oliver Hafenbauer, Daniel Herrmann, Höchster Porzellan-Manufaktur, Hofe, Chin-Gi Hong, Sebastian Kahrs, Christoph Keller, Jürgen Keßler, Karl Kliem, Kerstin Laackmann, Lisa Marschall, Stefan Marx, Meiré und Meiré, Jan Paul Müller, Meso, David Meves, Montana, Morgen Interiors, Nordlicht, Prof. Dr. Regine Prange, Tobias Rehberger, Michael Riedel, Andreas Rohrbach, Prof. Dr. Carsten Ruhl, Michael Satter, Gabi Schirrmacher, serien.lighting, Marcel Storandt, Ströhmann Steindesign, Sven Tadic, Susanne Theißen, Von Zubinski, Martin Wenzel, Prof. Dr. Christof Windgätter, Holger Wüst, Zimmer + Rohde
Director: Matthias Wagner K
Curators: Dr. Eva Linhart and Mahret Kupka
Presented by: Museum Angewandte Kunst
Press contact: Grit Weber and Julia Quedzuweit: T +49 69 212 32828 / 73243 /
F +49 69 212 30703 / presse.angewandte-kunst [at] stadt-frankfurt.de