00:00:00: The objects around us, they contain memories.

00:00:03: Our sofas know so much about

00:00:05: this

00:00:05: or our cups... They know SO MUCH!

00:00:08: So in that sense you are who we are with the stuff around YOU!

00:00:13: Says Hela Youngerius – With whom I'm speaking today for a new episode of our Weltkunst podcast.

00:00:18: Was macht die Kunst?

00:00:20: Hela youngerius is one of the most influential designers of our time.

00:00:25: Since the nineteen nineties her work has spanned the realms of design, art and craft.

00:00:29: She works with a variety of materials like ceramics wood or textile.

00:00:35: Following its premiere at Wiedra Museum in Weilam-Rein Her retrospective Whispering Things will be on view At The Museum Of Kunst & Gewerbe In Hamburg from October twenty third until mid twenty twenty seven.

00:00:52: What is Art Up To?

00:00:56: What macht sie kunst?

00:00:58: I think this is our oxygen.

00:01:01: You have your show right now at Vitra Design Museum, it's coming up in Hamburg!

00:01:05: How does it feel to see you own work exhibited on a museum looking back onto thirty years of

00:01:12: creativity?!

00:01:14: That's quite strange...to be honest and i've seen many exhibitions but never an archive exhibition or Thirty years of work, so I walk through my life and see thirty-years in five minutes.

00:01:31: So it is a lot because i don't see only the end results but at times?

00:01:39: where created?

00:01:41: with what kind people did that?

00:01:44: what was declined about the context.

00:01:47: The time resonates on different objects, where I in my private life?

00:01:53: Where did i have my

00:01:54: studio?".

00:01:55: So it is all this information... All those layers that I see and so It's quite intense to be honest.

00:02:04: And I'm also happy That I wasn't much involved in the choice of objects, because there is much more in the archive.

00:02:15: So I let it a bit out my hands to know how this story could be told.

00:02:26: So you left your archive to Vitra Design Museum a few years ago, so they were able to work with objects but also withdrawings and correspondences.

00:02:36: Were you surprised by the choice that they made?

00:02:40: No I was not surprised!

00:02:43: Of course I was involved too... But it's surprising seeing myself because this is kind of chronological what i don't like much if I go to an exhibition.

00:02:56: But the first room is about my first ten years, so when i was in Drogh design this collaboration with Dutch designers and in this work... ...I did self-initiated work but didn't have any clients And the themes that I touched there without words just making it into thinking.

00:03:19: So my own agenda still visible now in the work.

00:03:24: So, the imperfection... The whole thinking on materials that the material leads to a certain product and lead our way into culture or an archive.

00:03:39: this relationship between objects or products we live with, the misfits repair all those topics are still in my works and are relevant in the world of my profession, I think in general still resonating.

00:04:01: So that was for me like whoa.

00:04:04: you know how intuitive i was at that time a young and if you have the right questions... How they can walk with you for thirty years?

00:04:15: And resonate each with different companies over different museums or in different times.

00:04:23: that was for me a surprise and yeah I also thought you know i was kind of proud

00:04:34: wonderful of course.

00:04:36: retrospective like that is reason itself to be proud but still happy.

00:04:43: the work its development this must have been great feeling.

00:04:49: Going back to even before you made objects, did art and design play a great role in your

00:04:58: upbringing

00:04:58: when you were child in the Netherlands?

00:05:01: How did first decide become designer.

00:05:04: Well no it was not my upbringing.

00:05:06: so I was raised on farm.

00:05:10: My father is a gardener.

00:05:12: I grew up in a tomato farm, so very Dutch and very funny for Germans.

00:05:20: It was a very simple life in the small village.

00:05:23: there were no culture or music... So it wasn't another kind of culture simply daily life being in nature.

00:05:33: And i didn't have many friends because we lived far away from neighbors.

00:05:39: So I didn't know for a long time what to do, but on a certain moment all my friends went to art schools or art academies.

00:05:49: And i have chosen to start being a carpenter.

00:05:55: And then on a certain moment I thought, I don't want to be this technical.

00:05:59: So I would like to go too also be creative.

00:06:02: so i was creative as a child because we all the girls were all knitting and macrame and those things.

00:06:08: that's how I knew I had some talent in my hands knowledge?

00:06:13: Then I thought yeah art academy is free.

00:06:16: maybe it's not the way...so..I was afraid!

00:06:18: Maybe when I went into an industrial design school that was something that interested me.

00:06:25: And then I applied for this school.

00:06:29: It was a good match because... ...I really like the boundaries of my profession and that you have practical goals, it has to function.

00:06:39: You can also question what is functioning?

00:06:42: Also did in my work.

00:06:44: So i had an artistic way of working.

00:06:47: so i'm free, i wander around, i dive into topics But end goal is an object or a project, something that could land in the real world.

00:07:00: Could function and give us an idea what future of an object would look like?

00:07:10: So I think it was good choice.

00:07:15: You were a member of Drogh Design.

00:07:18: Is this a collective that came out of art school?

00:07:21: Did you have connections there or how did these come about?

00:07:24: That was the teacher at The Design Academy, Gheisbacher with Curator.

00:07:30: They founded this collaboration platform so I knew him as a professor and then they started to find interesting objects place them together For ten years, so there was a very productive time also for me because I only had to design or wander around finding my own topic My own language.

00:07:56: My handwriting and questions And they took the work in the right context with other interesting works and showed it on platforms In the world.

00:08:08: So that's really huge.

00:08:11: Yeah!

00:08:11: I could immediately fly.

00:08:13: That was really, I'm thankful for the start.

00:08:17: And then you started your own firm in Rotterdam, Youngerius Lab?

00:08:22: You had connections already but were there any difficulty finding clients and getting lucrative jobs?

00:08:28: or what do say?

00:08:30: where challenges of having your own firms than

00:08:34: Well first in Holland to have a lot funding.

00:08:38: So the first ten years I had funding, also in a time that was collaborating with drug design.

00:08:45: And then i always tell young people after eight years if you work on your uvra and show who are... After eight years the telephone rings!

00:08:56: Then there is somebody wants job or have questions for you.

00:09:01: so.. The B said what I did, the porcelain said it with makum.

00:09:07: That's a very old porcelain company in Holland.

00:09:11: And they wanted to produce the B-set, so an imperfect porcelaine T set and after that, Meharam –that is an upholstery company in New York– he called me if I could do textile for him, upholstered textile.

00:09:28: at the same time feedback holds.

00:09:29: So... look myself for jobs, because people need to be ready.

00:09:37: So there's a lot of meetings before somebody calls you so we have to be on the mood boards for long time.

00:09:45: I'm in many mood boards and at certain moment they call me yeah i was lucky that i had those ten years building out my own handwriting with help or funding

00:10:00: And your work material seems to me boundless from ceramics, to textile or wood.

00:10:10: I find this is also very unique that there are so many things you're associated with... So many materials and still have your own handwriting!

00:10:20: How do go about a project?

00:10:22: You start with the material or concept?

00:10:25: I started with a question!

00:10:29: So i see behind you beautiful vases.

00:10:33: That's an example.

00:10:34: How do you go about?

00:10:35: what was the question for these?

00:10:50: If I could make a new object with ears out of the mid-ages, so pottery from very long time ago.

00:11:03: And i received eight The Ending Of A Bowl or The Bottom Of A Ball Or An Ear and I started to create pots for it... ...and the pots are also copied from pots.

00:11:16: then you know, an archetypical... I don't need to make new-new so i will leave in archetypical shapes.

00:11:22: So I made those faces and placed the ears on it ...I had a certain rechieger for it ,a certain way of doing it ..and then I have this seventh pot.

00:11:33: .So it was a new way of repairing.

00:11:35: or how can you revive the archive?

00:11:42: And then, after that I took the vase out of this collection and the vase became my canvas.

00:11:48: So i used it for many projects like for textiles as a decorative motif.

00:11:56: or these faces...I use them a lot to color work so trying to understand glazing and colorwork from other companies etc.

00:12:07: It is kind of a canvas in this phase.

00:12:11: It started like this repair idea and became my own archive, so I built upon it to use as a canvas for my thinking.

00:12:27: So its not easy.

00:12:30: how do you start?

00:12:31: There are many parameters where we think of why.

00:12:36: now is the question.

00:12:39: I think it's very important that you resonate with the time, and make sense of where we are right now.

00:12:48: And... Where do we come from?

00:12:51: What was before...?

00:12:55: So these questions always have a wide material.

00:12:59: These are an important question for me!

00:13:04: It is beautiful to think that the vase is a canvas because Of course Dutch people are also very famous for flowers and vases, tulips.

00:13:16: And I find it beautiful that its a universal object –a universal vessel– but has this Dutch connotation too!

00:13:24: For you it becomes a canvas so it feels like a full circle in a way.

00:13:29: Yeah…and also to question functionality...like these vase you don't need to use them for flowers.

00:13:36: it can have another function, that's also how I see my profession.

00:13:40: So functionality is not only using the thing but for imagination or as a canvas.

00:13:49: so functionality is questionable of ways to contain water.

00:13:56: You have all those priorities, why?

00:13:59: So this is an interesting topic for me here on Vasis.

00:14:04: Yeah,

00:14:04: Vasis also in the course of history a status symbol.

00:14:09: it can be something super valuable that's very fragile.

00:14:14: I think the fragility Is a topic thats very much our times.

00:14:19: so Avaz actually has lot of connotations that resonate with us today.

00:14:24: Yeah, and also if you look in museums or what we have left from the old days is pots.

00:14:31: We have tools that are left in archives for a very long time ago... And pots pottery!

00:14:39: It's also culture everywhere in the world different.

00:14:43: so it's an interesting object.

00:14:50: Are you collector of things?

00:14:52: No no

00:14:55: You have the appreciation for old things, let's say in a museum.

00:14:58: An old pot in museums but you don't buy anything?

00:15:02: No

00:15:03: no it makes me also happy and I think... For me that is why this show was called Whispering Things.

00:15:13: So things around us, objects they are something too loud.

00:15:18: If you have to much it's too loud.

00:15:20: I don't have an empty house and this modernistic empty house so i have stuff but I know that it has a weight.

00:15:31: Objects have a weight And...I'm careful!

00:15:40: So of course there's a responsibility that comes with objects to care for them, have space.

00:15:46: The

00:15:49: less you have the less problems because as soon as something happens and you buy your problem.

00:15:57: And also the objects around us they contain memories.

00:16:01: our sofas know so much about this or our cops knows so much.

00:16:07: And yeah, so in that sense you are who we were with stuff around.

00:16:13: How does this thought affect your work as a designer?

00:16:17: Who creates more objects?

00:16:19: Yeah what I find very difficult here is the consumption and then they use materials maybe for garbage to throw away.

00:16:29: So that's also the reason why I stopped working for industry, because i don't believe that I can add something to this capitalistic system.

00:16:38: You know everything you make pushes on the earth and our sources.

00:16:46: so yeah...I do not believe in it!

00:16:49: That is where I stand with my moral compasses I think, in research projects what could craft like weaving?

00:17:02: What would it bring for a future.

00:17:04: How can i look at this craft and then dive deeper?

00:17:09: so don't come into the end with an object that has to be sold because you have to make compromises materials and sources that poison the world, but I like to work deeper in research for a longer time.

00:17:31: And then show it in a museum and communicate with people not with consumers.

00:17:37: That's now more interesting field.

00:17:41: so i stopped working for industry eight or ten years.

00:17:49: You said you're not working with these big companies anymore but looking back of course this is a very, in many cases it's a very fruitful production.

00:17:59: I'm thinking of Nymphenburg porcelain with animals sitting on plates that are really lovely and furniture for KLM the airline and Camper and IKEA so have had amazing collaborations.

00:18:18: concentrate on your own works and increasingly with animals.

00:18:22: So how come animals play such a big role in your work right now?

00:18:28: Yeah, so animals are in my earth since the beginning.

00:18:32: start is the name for board project... ...so I was asked to come into the company in Munich and every beautiful, beautiful old company.

00:18:42: And there were cobbards with animals that nobody wanted to buy because you know who wants to have this little small thingy?

00:18:50: That was from the early days but they were beautifully made.

00:18:53: so I took them out of the cupboard and placed them in a new surrounding.

00:18:56: i made a bowl and they're in the middle and they got a new decoration over it.

00:19:00: So after that... ...I did props for Vitra.

00:19:05: So, office pads can I make instead of an office chair and office pad.

00:19:11: And then i made a frog table so huge rock on the corner of the table in wood just to have him at eye level.

00:19:22: An animal, a voiceless animal on an eye level.

00:19:26: Give them voice and place at the table... And I did animals for IKEA or whatever.

00:19:30: but to me they communicate.

00:19:34: in our myth fairy tales we recognize ourselves as an animal.

00:19:40: They communicate!

00:19:41: And they're funny you know?

00:19:45: And now I make, and so for Roven Cosmos i did the show in for Gropius Baro Museum in Berlin.

00:19:53: There I created also animals.

00:19:55: then looked at my animals and thought yeah you know they're all so happy!

00:20:00: So I started to clay pottery...make them by hand..and then it started be very angry You know?

00:20:06: Now we made those group of angry animals because, you know how they are treated in the world and not only their animals but all have women's names a setback for feminism to give them a voice.

00:20:22: To show that emotion.

00:20:24: so angrieness is in the air All around in this world Not only victims the bullies.

00:20:34: So I wanted to express this angrieness, that's why these last animals are angry.

00:20:43: Are they unique pieces or is there other editions?

00:20:46: Yeah and I did for Vita a big fountain with three sharks – three angry shark, a shark fountain also in front of the museum.

00:20:57: so joy, beauty and abundance.

00:21:07: The values that we are losing so the softer values... And I wanted to express this in front of these museums.

00:21:17: So yeah they're one-offs.

00:21:19: for now you never know whatever.

00:21:24: Is the fountain also traveling to

00:21:26: Hamburg?

00:21:27: No!

00:21:27: The fountain is forever.

00:21:29: Oh the fountain stays there forever.

00:21:31: That's great

00:21:33: in front of the Gehry building.

00:21:35: It's a super combination,

00:21:37: yeah I saw vases that also reminded me of these old Dutch this Old Dutch tradition That you don't only have one opening In a vase but You have little ones Also where single flowers could potentially go.

00:21:51: Of course i doubt that you would put flowers into The shark's crevices.

00:21:57: There is this playful allusion to the tradition.

00:22:02: And then of course they look very contemporary, angry and animated... ...and communicative in a way.

00:22:10: so normally Vars doesn't talk about you but these animals really have something to say not just to whisper.

00:22:18: No!

00:22:18: They don´t whisper.

00:22:19: They are

00:22:22: loud.

00:22:22: The title for the show Whispering Things implies that objects talk to you.

00:22:30: How would you say, let's say today did any object talked to your already?

00:22:34: Yeah this morning I was so happy because my favorite cup is not in the dishwasher.

00:22:42: So very happy!

00:22:45: Yeah, objects communicate.

00:22:48: We all have a favorite cup.

00:22:50: we all have things in our house that are presents from people That you still know.

00:22:55: oh I got this on the occasion From this and this person.

00:22:59: some objects Are inherited from your parents?

00:23:02: Some you bought yourself or on holiday Or so just layer of.

00:23:08: how did they appear In your house?

00:23:10: then the layer off.

00:23:12: Do they function?

00:23:13: Some are not functioning, but still attractive or give you something.

00:23:19: Then the layer of culture and making – how do they get old?

00:23:25: How is material evolving?

00:23:27: in which cultures it's made what crafts… And then memories.

00:23:32: like Christmas we did this was broken.

00:23:37: Look at this stain on my sofa.

00:23:39: Oh, Scheisse!

00:23:40: But you know.

00:23:41: so there is all those layers in our objects.

00:23:46: makes us be aware of the object and maybe keep them a bit longer take care for them clean them prepare them give a sofa a new apostrophe not throw it away.

00:24:01: So its way to thinking about consumerism.

00:24:04: And be aware that you're not alone.

00:24:07: You are surrounded in good company and it's also your identity, what is privacy?

00:24:15: Does it need to be clean?

00:24:17: Are you a clean person or only at home in the evening?

00:24:22: do you see your life with lights but not daily light ?

00:24:31: Are your children destroying stuff?

00:24:34: Well, anyway.

00:24:35: So there is so much, so much richness...so many stories in our objects and that's what I try to address in whispering things.

00:24:49: It's a very poetic title And i also like how the chapters are named of your exhibition.

00:24:57: One is called Dirty Hands.

00:24:59: It feels like a motivation to get your hands dirty.

00:25:02: Yes, so that was always my method from the start... ...to make things study with many hands in my studio.

00:25:14: If you only keep knowledge out of your head it's just running around.

00:25:18: and in the hands is a certain knowledge that communicates with materials, and making.

00:25:24: And I think in the hands of smart-hands.

00:25:27: if they communicate with their head or computer then you come into an unexpected field.

00:25:34: so they think out of the box.

00:25:37: And yeah, that's why I think it is very important.

00:25:43: also you have the tactility and on a certain moment if your work for longer time with our hands weverse potters but also creating things in little maquettes or paper models whatever.

00:25:56: I see it in my studio, some are very knowledgeable.

00:25:59: They really they're so super intelligent with their hands and something's not really ugly.

00:26:08: you get lost in whatever kind of strangeness.

00:26:12: but here there is also then new combined things.

00:26:17: So that why i think the knowledge our hand is important.

00:26:23: Humor seems to play a role in your works, sometimes by combining techniques.

00:26:31: Sometimes giving something funny face even just speaking about animals.

00:26:37: and with the technique I'm thinking of you had plate that was stitched.

00:26:43: You have stitching on it so It's not make sense because materials normally can't stitch.

00:26:51: How big a role does humor play in your work, you think?

00:26:55: It's very funny that you say it.

00:26:56: That stitching on the plate doesn't make sense for functionality.

00:27:01: but if you look at with an art glass on... You would never say that!

00:27:07: So I don't say its art.

00:27:09: But there are many things like this done in art.

00:27:13: If we look at Merritt Oppenheim with the fur cup so you do not ask these questions in between art and design, sometimes I flip over to the other side or one-side.

00:27:28: And i think that's also the power –I'm not afraid–to be on a nowhere land!

00:27:34: Sometimes going overboard is part of research like where... I don't care what label I have but it's funny how outside world is always looking through certain glass.

00:27:50: I find humour can play a role in art and design.

00:27:53: And there's not clear border between art & design, no?

00:27:58: There is...I wouldn't say grey area but more like rainbow areas!

00:28:05: Yes something like that.. I think you have to take yourself not so serious and also not in objects.

00:28:12: And it's also a way of communicating, so I always... Also for industry sometimes you work for years to end up with an object that can be sold on the market or on a good price You know?

00:28:25: In the end this whole long trip i click something different than nobody expected like buttons under on the folder sofa So to give it oxygen again, To have some smile or give humanity.

00:28:40: I think that's important That we recognize ourselves and your humor helps.

00:28:45: And something beautiful is also communicating Something ugly is very good in communicating.

00:28:53: It's who i am.

00:28:56: What are you working on right now?

00:28:58: Ah big secrets!

00:29:03: So it's a big secret that I'm working on since three years.

00:29:09: And the opening is on the eleventh of December, and i am still not allowed to talk about this.

00:29:16: but there are these three different objects which can move... ...and they make ten of them and really will function.

00:29:23: so.... That's the only thing I could say!

00:29:26: It was for Big American Museum.

00:29:31: Around me, yeah.

00:29:32: You also have taught at universities in Berlin Weißensee Hochkunzelschule Weißenssee and Eindhofen.

00:29:40: what is advice you give to young designers who want to enter your field?

00:29:47: Yeah it's a very interesting moment right now because there only one question how to save the world or earth.

00:29:58: So I think this one question we all know and that's important.

00:30:03: To rethink our profession again, how to use materials?

00:30:08: How make products that can be repaired... Yeah!

00:30:12: How take care of the resources on consumerism or capitalism.

00:30:19: so in that sense it is very easy to become a designer.

00:30:23: The solution is difficult but That's also challenging and interesting.

00:30:28: So I think for designer, find your passion in this huge questions because they can give you a setback like... ...I can't have this huge problem on my plate, but if you have your own passion or interest….

00:30:49: …and find people who build communities don't do it alone so that Come with a bigger force than you yourself and your own thingies.

00:31:00: So I think that's important for young people.

00:31:04: If you could travel in time, where?

00:31:08: And to what period would you go?

00:31:10: Oh...I think then i would like to go the future.

00:31:14: I'd like see it next millennium.

00:31:17: What is your most important tool?

00:31:20: A measuring tape!

00:31:23: if You wear an animal..what will be?

00:31:25: ?

00:31:25: A cat?

00:31:26: What game do you like to play?

00:31:29: Bingo.

00:31:30: What's your favorite color?

00:31:31: I don't have

00:31:32: one.

00:31:33: Do you have a recurring dream?

00:31:35: Yeah, that i'm entering the house.

00:31:37: It is going on with rooms so I never get the clue where we are in.

00:31:42: Do you listen music when you work?

00:31:44: No what topic would you like see?

00:31:48: an entire issue of Weltkunst?

00:31:50: Solar energy.

00:31:52: Can you share wisdom?

00:31:54: In Dutch So after translate but hat kommt nooit op order.

00:31:58: So there's never an order in

00:32:00: things.".

00:32:01: Thank you very, very much and I look forward to December seeing the exhibition at Hamburg!

00:32:08: Weltkunst Podcast Was macht die Kunst?

00:32:10: is supported by Volkswagen Group Culture.

00:32:13: The Volkswagen Group Art for All Initiative offers free admission to the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin on the first Thursday of every month from four to eight

00:32:22: p.m.,

00:32:23: numerous programs at Hamburger Bahnhof, Nationalgallerie der Gegenwart in Berlin and free admission into the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg from four pm on.

00:32:35: Additionally, Volkswagen Group Art for All supports

00:32:39: TideTide

00:32:40: to mark the fortieth anniversary of Kunsthalle Emden!