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Unter dem Pflaster liegt der Strand
2022


„Unter dem Pflaster liegt der Strand“ is the title of the collaborative installation by Frieder Bohaumilitzky and Ursula Klein on the occasion of the Vienna Design Week. The title is an adaptation of the well-known saying of the 68 movement and in this context refers to the political relevance of design projects in public space.
The contribution was part of the dialogic format of Passionswege, in which international design creators are brought together with Viennese craft businesses. Ursula Klein is the third generation of her family to run the plastic processing company schulteswien, which produces inflatable one-offs for artists and museums.
In their collaboration, Bohaumilitzky and Klein combined their passion for inflatable objects with their interest in political content. They used an space-filling inflatable ensemble to occupy a vacant lot between buildings in Vienna's 6th district. 
During the day, the installation invited visitors to gather and hang out; in the evening, it became a space for discourse. In a series of open talks on the installation and in the adjacent workshop of schulteswien, the two discussed the potential of design in the face of current political challenges. The individual narrative elements of the installation served as starting points for the discussions with architects, filmmakers, historians, artists, politicians and political scientists. 

Passionswege, Vienna Design Week 

Concept: Frieder Bohaumilitzky · Ursula Klein / schulteswien 
Curated by: Nadja Zerunian · Gabriel Roland 
Setdesign: Frieder Bohaumilitzky · Ursula Klein / schulteswien
Production: Ursula Klein / schulteswien 

→ Detailed program



The exhibition Practice Space for Criticism is an experiment which actively tests out the concept of criticism. It addresses the following questions: how can we master the practice of criticism, which tools do we need to do so and how can we also prepare ourselves for situations in which we wish to express and receive criticism, whether positive or negative?
The ability to accept criticism is a key social skill when it comes to coexisting democratically with others, given the importance of entering into exchanges with others and negotiating different viewpoints. In order to strengthen this social skill, you need to have the courage to listen and understand your own viewpoint. The art to practising criticism is to tell another person how you see them or where you stand on a topic without offending them in the process – and, conversely, to be able to accept the opinions and insights of others without taking offense. 
In the form of a circuit training exercise, the practice space encourages participants to hone their critical abilities. Each station focuses on an area of critical practice, allowing participants to develop specific skills which can be applied to everyday situations. 

The Practice Room for Criticism DIY is a cooperation of the HFBK Hamburg with the Kursbuch Kulturstiftung and the Goethe Institut. Fot the cooperation a DIY kit of the Exercise Room for Criticism was developed, interested parties are provided with a construction manual, the necessary texts as well as a mediation program. 
Curator: Friedrich von Borries 
Exhibition design: Frieder Bohaumilitzky 
Mediation program: Anne Wilhelm 
Exhibition graphic design: Anne Stiefel 

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What would a life look like that – in the ecological, but also in the virological sense – remains as inconsequential as possible? Could a lack of consequences become a new regulative ideal, such as freedom, justice and equality, unattainable but still desirable? What would be the effects of such a striving on the material and immaterial organization of our everyday life, on the economic and social order, on our faith and the way we treat each other? And what models can be found for such a life in the present and in history? These are the questions posed by the Schule der Folgenlosigkeit, an artistic-discursive project by Friedrich von Borries.
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G)

Idea and concept: Friedrich von Borries 
Curatorial assistance: Frieder Bohaumilitzky · Jens-Uwe Fischer 
Exhibition design: Friedrich von Borries · Frieder Bohaumilitzky 
Exhibition graphic design: Ingo Offermanns 
Photos: Max Schwarzmann


Criticism can be practiced - according to the thesis of the exhibition Übungsraum für Kritik. The training course consists of 9 stations, where one can practise – among other things – critical self-reflection, discursive strife or utopian thinking. The exhibition has been accompanied by an exercise book in which critical trainers such as Harald Welzer, Kevin Kühnert or Armin Nassehi assist the experienced critics and those, who still want to become critics, with tips and tricks. The initiative ideas are the result of a seminar of the AG Gesellschaftsdesign at the HFBK Hamburg in cooperation with the Kursbuch.
Kampnagel Hamburg · Great Transformation Festival, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena · Globart Academy, Essl-Museum Klosterneuburg 

Curator: Friedrich von Borries · Jakob Schrenk 
Exhibition design: Frieder Bohaumilitzky 
Exhibition graphic design: Anne Stiefel 
Photos: Edward Greiner 


“Politics: Although politics ought to be dedicated to solving objective problems, the public functioning of politics is oriented toward the logic of the stage production. As a consequence, problem-solving retreats behind political actions that are conceived with public reception in mind, and whose function is to generate a specific mood among this public. Here, politics not only comes close to marketing, but even employs the techniques of design and (product) design for this purpose.” 
Glossary Contributions: Democratization, Innovations, Lifestyle, Politics. In: Angelika Nollert, Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum · Friedrich von Borries (Hg.): Friedrich von Borries: Politics of Design. Design of Politics. S. 129-146. London: Koenig Books Ltd. 

Catalogue graphic design: Ingo Offermanns