Interactive exhibition space of KISD and ENSCi students for EuroFabrique at Grand Palais Éphémère on Februar 10th, 2022 in Paris
The interactive exhibition EuroFabrique is a joint project of the design colleges KISD of TH Köln and ENSCi – Les Ateliers. It will take place at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris, which will be transformed into a huge European art and design school and laboratory for the occasion. The result of months of collaboration between the two universities will be presented in the exhibition from February 07 to 10, 2022. 400 students from 17 French and selected European partner schools (art, design, film, theatre and music) will spend four days reflecting on, discussing and making new connections with the continent we live on. On February 10, the exhibition will be opened to the public.
In this joint project 26 students from KISD of TH Köln and ENSCi – Les Ateliers in Paris have approached the topic of dis/connection in Europe to initiate re-/connections and opportunities for exchange in a bottom-up process. “Conversations are the glue that holds our society together and helps us to take on new perspectives”, says Irene Plank, German Foreign Office. She emphasizes how important it is especially during a pandemic to “step out of our own filter bubbles, get to know each other and exchange different perspectives.”
After several online calls, all students and teachers of KISD and ENSCi met for a one-week workshop at KISD in Cologne in mid-November 2021 in order to explore the complexity of Europe together. In five thematic groups, they worked on the central topics of Solidarity, Food, Migration, Borders and Critical Europe. A space of encounter and dialogue was designed for the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris with an exhibition of around 100 square metres.
There, everything initially revolved around the potato: a vegetable that is known to be explicitly non-European and that is not limited to one European country. The potato nevertheless became the starting object from which the students developed their concepts and sought solutions. Since then, the “Eurotato” has shaped the path to the final exhibition.
“The more viewpoints of people I have in my mind while thinking about a certain topic and the better I can imagine how I would feel and think if I were in their place, the stronger my capacity for representative thinking becomes and the more valid my final conclusions, my opinion,” Hannah Arendt exhorts in Truth and Politics (1967) to connect through dialogue, communication and exchange.
Our exhibition space invites visitors to look beyond surfaces and peel away traditional layers to answer and discuss our questions.
“When have you felt a divide between you and other Europeans? When have you stood up for someone else?”, are just two of many questions to encourage you to examine your image of Europe.
Would you like to take part yourself? Then we look forward to your visit to Potato Interview.
At the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris, visitors will have the opportunity to discover different ways of relating to Europe and reflect on questions they have not asked themselves before. They are invited to discover what emerges from under the layers, to participate in the rich diversity of everyday European life and to take up positions that stimulate debate with others.
The exhibition will be open to visitors on two days. On the first day, February 9th, renowned guests such as Rem Koolhaas (architect, NL) or Matali Crasset (industrial designer, F) are expected to enter into dialogue with the students and discuss their concepts. On February 10th, EuroFabrique will be opened to everybody. On this day, visitors are invited to explore the exhibition, add their own contributions and “connect” with the content, with Europe and also with other EuroFabrique projects.
All the collected statements from this exhibition and the video action will develop into a temporary process archive of personal statements that will be accessible on our platform whataboutus.eu.
This exhibition marks the beginning of a journey that will also reach other European locations. The second stop is planned in Cologne, maybe your city is next on the journey?
The project was developed in cooperation with our partner university ENSCi in Paris and supervised by Philipp Heidkamp, Iris Utikal and Lisa Janssen (KISD) as well as Tobias Nickerl and Fred Frety (ENSCi).
Student Team
Aurélie Klaf (ENSCI / France – Syria)
Balint Lanyi (KISD / Germany – Hungary)
Alina Bertacca (KISD / Germany – Italy)
Caroline Baumhauer (ENSCI / Germany)
Conor McArthur (ENSCI / Scotland)
Elisabeth Seidel (KISD / Germany)
Eva Blanch (ENSCI / France)
Felix Weißenbacher (KISD / Germany)
Garance Liaigre (ENSCI / France)
Dima German (KISD / Israel – Russia)
Julie Edmond (ENSCI / France)
Julie Pironin (ENSCI / France)
Juliette Smal (ENSCI / France)
Theresa Kousseva (KISD / Switzerland – Germany – Bulgaria)
Lou Sternebeck (KISD / Germany)
Lena Renz (ENSCI / Germany)
Lorenzo Zappia (ENSCI / Italy)
Lucy Howe (KISD / Germany – United Kingdom)
Luise Kanein (ENSCI / Germany)
Marine Fontaine (ENSCI / France)
Max Schmidt (ENSCI / Germany)
Nina Grazzi (ENSCI / Italy)
Rita Dallal (KISD / Germany – Jordan – Palestine)
Serin Gatzweiler (KISD / Germany)
Valentin Natschke (KISD / Germany)
Vilde Moger (ENSCI / Norway)
Details
Date 10. February 2022
All-day
Finished