Susan Hefuna, born to a German-Egyptian couple in 1962, grew up in Egypt and Germany. She studied art at the German Art academy and postgraduated in new media from the Frankfurt Art Academy. Susan Hefuna is a professor of multimedia art at the University of Design in Pforzheim Germany. Having a dual heritage the artist’s work emphasizes the transitions of culture-specific codes and stereotypes, as well as the perception of women in European and Arab societies.

Feel 2008

Smile 2008

Ana/Ich 2006

Yona Friedman 1923 Budapest

In 1958, Yona Friedman published his first manifesto : "Mobile architecture". The mobility in question is not the mobility of the building, but the mobility of the user, who is given a new freedom. "The building is mobile in so much as any sort of use whatsoever by the user or a group must be possible and realisable", Friedman explained. Mobile architecture is thus the "dwelling decided on by the occupant" by way of "infrastructures that are neither determined nor determining". Mobile architecture thus meant an architecture that was available for a "mobile society". To deal with this mobile society, the classical architect had invented "the Average Man", and the projects of architects in the 1950s were undertaken, according to Friedman, to meet the needs of this make-believe entity, and not to attempt to meet the needs of the actual user. The teaching of architecture was largely responsible for the under-estimation by the architect of the role of the user. But this teaching did not embrace any real theory of architecture. Friedman also proposed teaching manuals for the fundaments of architecture for the public. "If a theory is well constructed and spread abroad, it has the advantage of no longer being the property of specialists, but of stemming from the public domain. The present-day monopoly of the architect has to do with the fact that there is no real theory, but merely a set of pseudo-theories in other words, observations which only reflect the preferences of their authors". "A theory must be general and valid for anybody". "Everyone has their hypotheses. The general theory that I am trying to propound underpins all individual hypotheses". The spatial city, which is a materialization of this theory, thus makes it possible for everyone to develop his or her own hypothesis. This is why, in the mobile city, buildings should :
1) touch the ground over a minimum area
2) be capable of being dismantled and moved
3) and be alterable as required by the individual occupant"(Y.F.).
These criteria for the mobile city are decisive for the model of the spatial city.

 The first thing to realize about the work of Tobias Rehberger is that, despite appearances, it is not design. Design appears in Rehberger’s work as a subterfuge. In Rehberger’s work we see an antagonism to the functionality that is an absolute condition of modernist design. This rationalism was the foundation of the massive impact modernist design had upon the fabric of twentieth century culture. But by the late twentieth century there was a post-modern turn that was much more concerned with play and lifestyle. Rehberger, however, is not even definable in terms of postmodern design. He takes the deconstruction of mod­ernist design one step further by pulling it into the unchar­tered territory of the aesthetic with no name. There it is interpenetrated with concerns about identity, nonlinear narra­tive, and absurdism. 

Between... Aesthetic And Utility/Death And Life (Bar Sign), stainless steel 2009

Pascale Marthine Tayou was born in Yaoundé, Cameroon in 1967. After having lived in Stockholm and Paris he now lives and works in Ghent. Tayou is part of the generation of African artists that redefine post-colonial culture and mix experiences of their birthplace with those of Europe.

Tayou’s work is varied and consists of drawings, sculptures, installations, videos and performances. His work has the feel of a diary; Tayou includes aspects of his nomadic existence, his family and his life in Cameroon. It also raises daring questions regarding cultural and national identity as well as more existential thoughts on, for example, AIDS or the cacophony of city life. These profound works examine the permeability of boundaries, the self as defined by personal history (and meetings with others) and questions regarding economy and migration.