Die Neue Sammlung acquires shadow play by Jongerius and Schouwenberg
- Year: 2020
- Commission: Die Neue Sammlung, Pinakothek der Moderne
- Production: Jongeriuslab
- Category: Exhibition
- Category: One-offs / experiments
Die Neue Sammlung acquires shadow play by Jongerius and Schouwenberg
Die Neue Sammlung, the design museum at Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, has acquired ‘A Search Behind Appearances’ by Hella Jongerius and Louise Schouwenberg.
In 2015 Jongerius and Schouwenberg wrote a manifesto to express their criticism of the design field and make a plea for a renewed idealistic agenda. In 2016, at the invitation of the Serpentine Gallery and La Rinascente, they created a follow-up with the shadow-producing installations of ‘A Search Behind Appearances’. This time focussing on the potential of design.
In 2017, the installations were part of a site-specific exhibition that Jongerius and Schouwenberg created for Die Neue Sammlung. The exhibition raised questions on the gap between how we experience design in daily life and how we read the meaning and value of those objects in the context of a museum display.
A Search Behind Appearances reflects on the state of affairs in design and prompts a consideration of the meanings that hide behind appearances. It does so through a sophisticated shadow play. Ingeniously animated and automated small-scale machines assemble and dis-assemble iconic objects and words into their constituent parts. The ever-shifting shadows of these intricately orchestrated movements are projected onto specially woven fabrics.
Angelika Nollert, director of Die Neue Sammlung, on the acquisition:
“The installation ‘A Search Behind Appearances’ is of great importance for our museum because the Neue Sammlung is a programmatic collection of contemporary design.
This multi-part work addresses many aspects of the current discourse: The questions of innovation and sustainability of design are just as relevant here as the question of the responsibility of design processes for designers, for consumers, but also for the exhibiting and mediating institutions.“