Last weekend I was in Copenhagen and visited the Designmuseum Denmark. They have a few different exhibitions at the moment, and I could spot some interesting items that coincide with my potential master thesis topic of “handmade design & politics”.
The first exhibit was called “In Love & War” and displayed Japanese woodblock prints. Woodblock printing was developed in the tang dynasty and became a common printing technique in the mid seventeenth century because of the low production costs. The prints on display “[…] idealized the daily life of the prostitutes of that time and served as visual propaganda in the form of war images with nationalist and patriotic undertones.” (https://designmuseum.dk/en/exhibition/in-love-war/). These prints were not considered fine art, but rather functioned as entertainment.
The next exhibition is called “The future is present”. It poses questions on what our society will look like, what will we prioritize, what will our values be, and what will design look like in the future. There were many interesting items but the most relevant for my topic was the corner about craftivism by the Craftivist Collective. Their Manifesto was printed out on a huge banner, explaining how we can make a difference by crafting. The guidelines all lean towards mindfulness and consideration instead of aggression and hate. They strive towards making meaningful change by inspiring people. This is called gentle activism. They had small, crafted pieces on display and encouraged the viewer to participate in the movement themselves, by showing how easy it is to do so. In the museum shop they also sold little kits that make it easy to become a craftivist yourself. For example, a little embroidery protest banner kit.
There were more exhibitions which were interesting, but don’t really overlap with my topic. Overall, I really enjoyed the visit to the museum. I find it interesting that woodblock printing was then a cheap way of making entertainment and propaganda. Meanwhile nowadays handmade techniques are considered costly and are used for the opposite: activism and protest.
Links:
https://designmuseum.dk/en/exhibition/in-love-war/
https://designmuseum.dk/en/exhibition/the-future-is-present/
