Open Lecture: Philipp Teufel “Japanese Happiness. In search of happiness of inner contentment through aesthetic experience”

On Thursday, 24 October at 17.00, Philipp Teufel, Professor Emeritus of Exhibition Design at the Peter Behrens School of Art (PBSA), University of Applied Sciences, Düsseldorf, will give a lecture on Japanese aesthetics, material culture and philosophical approach to life. In the lecture, Teufel will present a travelling exhibition of the same name curated by himself, which opened this summer at the The Japan Cultural Institute in Cologne and will open in Tallinn in spring 2025. The lecture will be introduced by Masayo Ave, a Japanese designer and former professor of product design at the EKA.

The exhibition “Japanese Happiness” presents the joy that the Japanese experience through aesthetic everyday objects. To put together the exhibition, Philipp Teufel asked dozens of curators, artists, philosophers and other creatives well-versed in Japanese culture to propose objects that they believe best represent the symbiosis of everyday objects, a sense of beauty and well-being. The result is a broad-based exhibition of Japanese product design and applied art, including historical folk art, contemporary high-tech design and phenomena from contemporary mass culture. For example, traditional brooms, bonsai scissors, kimono and a high-tech titanium tumbler are among the curator’s choices. Many of these items are made with the utmost dedication in small Japanese factories, employing highly skilled craftsmen. As well as the form and use of the objects, the exhibition focuses on the way in which they are made – the touch of the master’s hand.

Professor Philipp Teufel studied visual communication and scenography at the HfG Gmünd University of Applied Sciences in Schwäbisch Gmünd. From 1985 to 1995, he was a partner at the concept design agency in Frankfurt am Main. Until 2007, Teufel was a partner at the nowakteufelknyrim design studio, and from 2008 to 2017, he was managing director of the malsyteufel studio. As artistic consultant for scenography, he supported the Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace from 2010 to 2015. Philipp Teufel has been teaching and researching in the field of 3D communication at Hochschule Düsseldorf – University of Applied Sciences for more than 25 years and is currently a member of the Federal Ministry of Finance’s Art Advisory Board. He has also been a jury member of Red Dot since 2015 and currently curates and designs exhibitions on the Anthropocene and on green urban living (“Grüntopia” and “Transition Now”).

The exhibition is a joint project between PBSA Exhibition Design and the EKA  Interior Architecture, supported by the Identity Foundation, a Düsseldorf-based institution promoting philosophical discourse. The exhibition design was the result of three workshops led by Japanese designer Masayo Ave. The MA students had to create a unique travelling exhibition, which involved the creation, production and installation of a holistic exhibition architecture and modular design, as well as the sensory communication of the content. The exhibition was first exhibited in Cologne at the Japan Cultural Institute from 24 May to 31 July 2024. In spring 2025, the exhibition will travel to Estonia, opening on 6 March in the ARS project space. The Tallinn exhibition will also be set up by students from EKA and PBSA. For this purpose, a workshop will be held at the EKA on 21-25 October under the guidance of Masayo Ave. In autumn 2025, the exhibition will travel to Japan.

Everyone from the fields of architecture, design, art, media and art research interested in the questions of exhibition design and exhibiting design are welcome to join! The lecture will be in English and is free of charge. Thanks for the support from the Erasmus+ programme.

Further information:

Gregor Taul
gregor.taul@artun.ee
Visiting lecturer
Department of Interior Architecture
Faculty of Architecture
Estonian Academy of Arts