PressPositions on Freedom Design and Its Boundaries

14 May – 28 June 2026

the thing Fellowship 2026

Graphic: Autostrada Studios

Is design a tool of liberation, oppression, or both at once? From 14 May to 28 June 2026, the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt addresses this question with the exhibition Positions on Freedom. Design and Its Boundaries. The exhibition treats its title as a method and unfolds the topic as a spectrum across three interconnected formats: a group exhibition developed through an open call and in collaboration with the museum, newly commissioned works by invited designers (fellows), and a reader featuring theoretical contributions and conversations.

Between aesthetics and norms, designers create tangible objects that define what appears possible. In doing so, they not only produce solutions, but often also exclusions and new forms of normality. Through a wide range of works and formats, Positions on Freedom approaches freedom from multiple perspectives. What emerges is a complex concept that can only be grasped, if at all, through its plurality. The projects presented in the exhibition span political and spatial freedom, as well as artistic and intellectual freedom. They render these questions tangible through barriers, representations of identity, and engagements with violence and surveillance.

The exhibition is an official project within the framework of World Design Capital Frankfurt RheinMain 2026 and was realised as part of the thing Fellowship, an initiative of the thing Magazine. Developed in partnership with USM and the Fondation USM, the exhibition also explores how freedom can be negotiated within the tension between institutional structures and entrepreneurial frameworks.

Initiator and artistic director: Anton Rahlwes

Press release
Exhibition sheet

The reader Positions on Freedom. Design and Its Boundaries can be provided as a PDF document for press purposes upon request.
Please contact us at presse.angewandte-kunst@stadt-frankfurt.de.

Press Images

Exhibition Images

Please note that the image material may only be used in conjunction with a report on the exhibition and with the citation of the exhibition title in its entirety.