20.02.2010
Kunstgewerbemuseum
In February of this year, the Museum of Decorative Arts was pleased to announce that it had purchased the 'Amazon' model dress by the Berlin fashion designer Stephan Hann. The spectacular dress was created in 2008 as part of a promotional collection for the packaging manufacturer, Tetra Pak. Its silvery mother-of-pearl surface is the result of hundreds of torn fragments of Tetra Pak, whose printed sides are glued and sewed onto the supporting material below, thus exposing the packaging material's inner surface.
Concurrent to this, the artist has also donated another one of his Tetra Pak models to the museum, taken from his 'Milkmaid' series, in which the printed side of the packaging this time is used, in this case featuring milk carton prints.
Stephan Hann creates unusual model dresses made from objects and materials which have fulfilled their actual purpose and subsequently been discarded: pages from the telephone directory, celluloid strips, architectural plans, champagne labels, Tetra Pak cartons, French army-issue wallets, tape used to cordon off construction sites and blisters (medical packaging), CDs and light bulbs have all at one time served as inspiration for him. Hann keeps such objects and transforms them into new works in their own right. He thus presents familiar materials in unfamiliar contexts, thereby rendering their hidden properties and potential visible. His works are his way of contributing to safeguarding our cultural memory and preserving core resources in general.