Tradition & Handicraft
The MAK exhibition handicraft – Traditional Skills in the Digital Age reflects on the significance and status of handicraft as an integral component of material culture and cultural identity. In six sections, this comprehensive MAK exhibition encompasses handicraft from historical times to current European perspectives, examines how handicraft can help preserve natural resources, explores new developments on the interface to digital technologies, and presents masterpieces from a range of craft disciplines.
Currently the terms handicraft and handmade are used with inflationary frequency in advertising and lifestyle media. The Maker Movement and Do-it-Yourself-culture are enormously successful, creating a worldwide hype. Globally operating luxury labels explicitly foreground handicraft as a mark of quality and distinction, in contrast to the reality of locally operating craftspeople struggling for recognition and a fair wage.
In the introductory exhibition section, Past & Present a wide range of exhibits – from the industrial revolution and the various aspects of handicraft considering central movements such as Arts & Craft, Wiener Werkstätte, Werkbund and Bauhaus - discursively illustrate the social status of handicraft over the centuries.
Under the title Perspectives, the second exhibition section presents European initiatives and institutions active in the fields of apprenticeship and marketing, to include the Crafts Council and the Compagnons du Devoir.
The section Materials and Tools presents a wide range of material samples and in a Live Workshop a total of 20 craftspeople demonstrate their skills to the public daily including cobblers, milliners, weavers, carpenters, potters, luthiers, tinsmiths right up to Dirnd taylors.
The section Quality & Excellence juxtaposes historical objects from the MAK collection with contemporary handicraft products from 18 European countries. Exhibits include furniture, wallpapers, tiles, carpets, clothing, hats, gloves, glasses, cutlery, and tableware made by 50 craftspeople.
Curators: Rainald Franz, Kustode MAK collection glas und ceramics, Guest curator: Tina Zickler.
Exhibition opening:
Tuesday, 13th December, 2016, 7pm
Venue:
MAK
Exhibition Hall
Stubenring 5
1010 Vienna
Exhibition duration:
14.12. – 9.04.2017
Opening hours:
Tues, 10am – 10pm
Wed-Sun, 10am – 6pm
every Tuesday free entry from 6pm – 10pm