10. – 11. February 2017

 

Conference

Design Dispersed. Forms of Migration and Flight

 

Organizers: Burcu Dogramaci, Kerstin Pinther for AG Kunstproduktion und Kunsttheorie im Zeichen globaler Migration

 

The transdisciplinary conference "Design Dispersed" pursues the complex and heterogeneous connections between migration and design in the 20th and 21st centuries. Its spectrum ranges from Hussein Chalayan’s collection "Afterwords" (2000), which broaches the issues of migration and displacement through the transformation of furniture into mobile garments, to the Beirut-based Bokja Desig’s "Migration Series" (2013), Walé Oyéjidé’s fashion designs "After Migration" (2016), and Lucy Orta’s "Refuge Wear – Habitent" (1992-93). The conference will also include historical emergency shelter projects, the flight and exile of Bauhaus architects and designers, and participatory design projects with refugees. Although questions of art production and theory have meanwhile repeatedly been made a subject of discussion within the context of global migration, a fundamental and comparative historical engagement with design and migration is lacking. In order to bring these extremely partitioned discussions together, we propose a design concept that encompasses all formative approaches to the design of things and products – including design and architecture. On one hand, questions arise regarding the aesthetic effects that result from the networking, overlapping, and mixing of forms, as well as regarding the political and social dimensions of design on the other hand.

 

In three thematically intersecting panels, objects and design practices will be discussed within the context of migration, exile, and flight.

 

Design Dispersed – Forms of Migration asks how experiences of migration, flight, and exile are mirrored in the things designers create. We’re interested in artifacts that make these social and political dimensions experienceable. How are these processes inscribed in an object’s history – and how do they become part of the product experience? How does the notion of "home" or "homeland" materialize in objects? What kind of role does the materiality of the thing play in this context? Following the so-called global turn in design history (see Riello et al, 2011) we’re also interested in (historic) 'designs' in which transculturality is reflected as a double figure of cosmopolitanism and locality. The movements of objects will be traced here. Which forms of conceptual, textual, and material mixtures does this produce?

 

Design Dispersed – Design by and for Migrants wants to critically historicize and discuss design concepts for refugees, particularly in the field of architecture and social media. In light of the more than 65 million people fleeing from war, conflict, and persecution, the topic of design and society has developed a particular (renewed) relevance. This is not only apparent in a series of different initiatives like "What Design Can Do" or "Better Shelter Org," but also in first exhibitions (like MOMA 2017, Architecture of Displacement). On the other hand, migrants and refugees also create indispensable things. Taking these manifestations of a design and product culture from migrants under consideration is also a desideratum.

 

Design Dispersed – Designers as Cultural Agents and Brokers takes the actors in design themselves under consideration. Here the migration of architects under the conditions of exile ("migrant Bauhaus") and the localization of their creations will be made a subject of discussion, alongside more recent (temporary) re-migrations of designers and architects educated in Europe or America to their home countries (like Francis Kéré or Kunlé Adeyemi). The discussion of a design practice as possibility of identitary re-enactment, as in the fashion design of Bobby Kolade or Haider Ackerman, offers points of reference. What kinds of new topographies and networks emerge in the field of design and collaboration from this change in location? Historical case studies, such as the design work of Scharoun’s student Chen-Kuen Lee in the Berlin context, are also welcome.

 

MEETING & CONFERENCE

 

Thursday, 09.02.2017

 

14.00–17.30  AG MEETING internal

Kunstraum München, Holzstraße 10, Rgb. 80469 München

 

Conference start

 

18.00–20.00
Coming Together & Guided tour (part1): "Flow of Forms / Forms of Flow. Designgeschichten
zwischen Afrika und Europa"
Kunstraum München, Holzstraße 10, Rgb. 80469 München

 

Friday, 10.02.2017

 

10.00–12.00
Guided tour (part 2) "Flow of Forms / Forms of Flow"
Galerie Karin Wimmer, & Museum Pinakothek der Moderne / Architekturmuseum

 

12.00–13.30 Lunch break
Change of location: Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Katharina-von-Bora-Str. 10, 80333 München

 

13.30–14.00
Burcu Dogramaci & Kerstin Pinther (LMU München):  Design Dispersed. Forms of Migration and Flight: Introduction

 

DESIGN DISPERSED: FORMEN DER MIGRATION

 

14.00–14.45
Hanni Geiger (München): Heimat „to go“. Mode und Migration bei Hussein. Chalayan.

 

14.45–15.30
Alexandra Karentzos (Darmstadt): Mit dem Trainingsanzug auf der Straße. Zur Konstruktion des „Migrant Chic“.

 

15.30 Kaffeepause

 

16.00–16.45
Elke Gaukele (Wien): Mode und Migration. Entangled Histories.

 

16.45–17.30
Cornelia Lund, Holger Lund (Ravensburg/Hamburg): Different by Design. Migration gegen den Strich gedacht.

 

17.30 Pause

 

18.00–20.00 - Evening lecture
Regina Bittner (Dessau): Zwischen Schiff und Haus. Vom leichten Gepäck des Bauhauses.
Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte

 

Gemeinsames Abendessen

 

Saturday, 11.02.2017

Institut für Kunstgeschichte der LMU München, Zentnerstr. 31, 80798 München

 

DESIGN DISPERSED: DESIGN VON & FÜR MIGRANT_INNEN

 

09.30–10.15
Alexandra Weigand (München): Humanitär, sozial und partizipativ – Eine neue Designkultur in Europa?

 

10.15–11.00
Birgit Mersmann (Universität Köln/Universität Basel): Flucht-Design und migratorische Stadtentwicklung. Die „Flüchtlingspavillons“ aus Westsahara und Deutschland auf der Architekturbiennale Venedig 2016.

 

11.00–11.30 Kaffeepause

 

DESIGN DISPERSED: DESIGNER_INNEN ALS KULTURELLE AGENTEN & BROKER

 

11.30–12.15
Sophia Prinz (Zürich): Lina Bo Bardi

 

12.15–13.00
Miriam Österreicher (Darmstadt): Ethno-Fashion‘ im modernistischen Mexiko – Transferprozesse in der Mode zwischen nationaler Tradition, individueller Identität und transnationaler Modernekonzeption.

 

13.30 Mittagessen
Café Max 2, Museum 5 Kontinente, Maximiliansstr. 42, 80538 München

 

15.00
Guided tour (part 3) "Flow of Forms / Forms of Flow"
Museum 5 Kontinente
Impulsvortrag von Kerstin Pinther zu Formafantasma

 

16.00 Conference end