Since 2007 the Werkbundarchiv – Museum der Dinge’s “open depot” standing exhibition has been pushing new levels of debate on the topic of collection in the public sphere.
In the new exhibition series, “Collections Show…” we turn our attention to privately curated collections, comparing and contrasting their particular focuses and methods of organization.
This exhibit presents three of the museum’s most recently acquired private collections:
First is a collection of objects significant to design history from artist and professor of design Werner Schriefers. Rooted in the collection of the Kunsthochschule Weißensee, this didactic collection for “comparative observation” consists of typewriters, coffee machines, lamp bodies, fans, porcelain etc.
Second is a collection of culturally significant books and documents from the cultural historian and educator Diethart Kerbs, a founder of the Werkbundarchiv. This collection comprises scrapbooks, record books, texts and documents on the “Lebensreformbewegung,” or Living Reform movement, on art education, on living ideals etc.
Third is a collection motivated by aesthetics and comprised of everyday objects from the educator Lene Reckenfelder. This collection is about the poetry of the quotidian: toys, buttons, glass bottles, writing instruments, hand mirrors etc.
