The special exhibition Ode to Craftsmanship, featuring films made by Donata Wenders between 2019 and 2023, provides a portrait of skilled crafts in Saxony. Commissioned by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, ten installations have been created, focusing on crafts that are characteristic of the region, some of which are at risk of disappearing.
When you play our YouTube or Vimeo videos, information about your use of YouTube or Vimeo is transmitted to the US operator and may be stored. In addition, external media such as videos or fonts are loaded and stored in your browser.
The artist’s visual language is by no means nostalgic—rather, she poetically captures filmic still lifes and combines them with the routine manual labour of the people depicted. The interplay between clearly contoured scenes and softly drawn sequences of movement results in novel artistic documentations. In her tracking shots, the artist remains a distanced observer, but the final cut nevertheless creates an intimate workshop situation.
In the rooms of the Japanisches Palais, the films are presented alongside objects that were created in the featured workshops or are associated with them. As allusive references to the respective crafts, these exhibits can be touched and handled, encouraging visitors to experience new materials and come into physical contact with these special craft objects.
Ode to Craftsmanship thus combines appreciation of craftsmanship with the reinstatement of its role in everyday life.
