From Today’s Perspective Discourses on the Future

In 2020 the University of Art and Design in Offenbach am Main celebrated its fiftieth anniversary as the state art university of Hesse. To mark this occasion the university developed the exhibition From Today’s Perspective. Discourses on the Future in collaboration with the Museum Angewandte Kunst.

The exhibition not only engaged with the contemporary challenges posed by current technological and socio-economic developments but also looked ahead—towards an uncertain future that can potentially be shaped by artistic and design-based approaches and joint commitment. Various media were used to activate the space, which is dedicated to activating the opportunities that lie between today and tomorrow. The exhibition played out unrealistic visions, which although seemingly doomed to failure nevertheless have the capacity to bring forth new worlds; it intellectually cracked open habitual structures in order to break paths to new institutions and discussions; it framed the experiment of making sustainability a matter of daily routine and investigated the zeitgeist.

Conceived by the students and faculty of the university, the exhibition consisted of three complementary modules: the museum space and displays, a digital platform, and a program of events. Installations, sculptures and objects, animations and films, performances, graphic design, product design, painting and drawing, and sound and text were presented in these different modules.

The conceptual starting point for the exhibition was the seminar Curating and Criticism lead by Prof. Matthias Wagner K.

Curatorial Team: Beatrice Bianchini, Irina Denkmann, Jonas Deuter, Ulrike Grünewald, Sebastian Hahn, Felix
Kosok, Erika Sacco, Maria Sitte, Anna Sukhova, Ellen Wagner, Matthias Wagner K.

The exhibition was supported by the Dr. Marschner Foundation.