The Eiffel Tower in China? Sebastian Acker: Traces of Other Places unites photos, film stills, and notes from an often surreal-looking journey undertaken by the Berlin-based artist Sebastian Acker (*1981) and his collaborator, Phil Thompson, through China’s copy-laden landscape, where not only have they erected sections of European cities, but also built a replica of an entire Austrian village. Simultaneously contemporary and anachronistic, the pictures in the book resist simple definitions of authenticity and imitation, not only by examining the theme of the reality experienced in the replicas, but also by shedding light on the tourism industry’s performative promotion of the European originals. Text in English and German.

A key element in Christian Jankowski's (*1968) practice of art involves feeding interventions peppered with humour into media contexts and closed systems. The paths of transmission and moments of disruption materialised in the exhibition Sender and Receiver at Fluentum, which featured a selection of new and previously rarely seen works. The show has been conceptually extended via the eponymous catalogue: Jankowski’s art from the past two decades has been documented in extensive photo series and is accompanied by a variety of texts that examine the content in depth. Of particular interest: a piece on the current coronavirus pandemic. In it, the artist gives so-called essential workers a temporary platform on select television formats in order to publicly share their personal experiences and impressions in a time when living conditions have been altered by the pandemic. The result is a complex stratum of unconventional narratives layered on top of television’s usual working order. Text in English and German.

Von wegen, weniger ist mehr. Endlich haben Designer, Kunstler und Architekten die suggestive Wirkung von Mustern wiederentdeckt. Sie huldigen nun dem einst zum UEberflussigen degradierten Dekor, indem sie Lampen, Stuhle oder ganze Raume mit Streifen, Punkten oder Tarnmustern uberziehen. Viele interpretieren, wie die in Rotterdam ansassigen Gestalter Jurgen Bey und Hella Jongerius, traditionsreiche Motive neu. Das Buch stellt gattungsubergreifend verschiedene Zugriffe auf Muster vor und zeigt, welche Funktionen Dekore ubernehmen koennen. Anhand von aktuellen Beispielen werden die vielfaltigen Farben, Formen und Anwendungen vor den Augen der Leser ausgebreitet. Dabei wird sichtbar, dass das Muster den gegenwartigen technischen Moeglichkeiten entspricht und den heutigen Wahrnehmungsbedingungen entgegenkommt. Die Arbeiten von international renommierten Gestaltern wie Tord Boontje, Michael Lin, Olaf Nicolai und Sauerbruch & Hutton werden in alphabethischer Reihenfolge vorgestellt.