Titanium cup; Taming titanium for a happy drinking moment Manufacturer: SUS, Tsubame (Japan); Photo: nexd, Robin Hartschen
On 24 May 2024, the exhibition “Japanese Happiness. In Search of happiness and inner contentment through aesthetic experience”, designed in collaboration with students of Interior Architecture at the EAA and Exhibition Design at the Peter Behrens School of Art under the supervision of Japanese designer Masayo Ave.
Fnformation from the institute’s website:
Japanese Happiness. An exhibition about the search for traces between the West and the East and the aesthetic dimension of happiness.
Opening on Friday 24 May 2024 at 19.00.
Speakers:
Murata Harufumi, Director of the Japan Institute of Culture.
Paul J. Kohtes, Founder of the Identity Foundation and Zen teacher.
Prof. Emeritus Dr. Rainer Zimmermann, Chairman of the Identity Foundation
Prof. Philipp Teufel, designer and curator
Students of the Institute of Exhibition Design at the Peter Behrens School of Art and Design
How to exhibit happiness? What is happiness and where can it be found?
Initiated by the Identity Foundation, a non-profit philosophy foundation, Düsseldorf, and realized in collaboration with the Peter Behrens School of Arts, the exhibition at the Japanese Cultural Institute in Cologne is an experimental and sensorial design exhibition that seeks to shed light on the relationship between happiness and Japanese aesthetics through selected everyday objects, design objects and artworks.
Twenty personalities from the fields of art, design, philosophy, cookery, Japanese studies, music, fiction, fashion, photography, typography and exhibitions were invited to select the objects. They are all connected with Japan and have contributed as co-authors to the exhibition catalogue.
In addition to the obvious aesthetic appeal of the objects, the exhibition also highlights the joy the craftspeople and makers experienced when looking at, using or making the selected objects. Persistent and hard work is rewarded with the happiness of inner satisfaction. Filmmaker Ooki Jing’s film about Japanese master craftsman Baba Masayuki vividly illustrates this.
Handy information leaflets in several languages allow visitors to discover the background and the links between happiness and the objects on display. Different texts describe surprising perspectives and, at the same time, help the objects to speak for themselves. Some of the texts come from the authors of the objects, while others are written by the exhibition team.
The exhibition design was created by master students of exhibition design (EDI) at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences in cooperation with students of the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA). Their exhibition design is both experimental and playful. The architecture of the exhibition radiates peace and simplicity and evokes a wide variety of sensations. One example of this is the interactive installation “In Praise of Sweeping”.
It is a collaboration with the international philosophy festival phil.COLOGNE (11-18 June 2024).