{"id":91853,"date":"2025-09-11T17:29:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T17:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/?p=91853"},"modified":"2025-09-12T05:29:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T05:29:37","slug":"bocci-crafting-community-design-berlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/en\/bocci-crafting-community-design-berlin\/","title":{"rendered":"Bocci celebrates 20 years with Crafting Community: design, art and community in Berlin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here, Crafting Community<\/strong> is presented: an exhibition bringing together an international group of artists and designers who explore how handcrafted objects can become vehicles of memory, resistance, celebration and, above all, community.<\/p>\n

Curated by Anna Carnick<\/em><\/a> \u2014an American-born critic, curator and writer based in Berlin\u2014 the exhibition is framed within a global moment of uncertainty. Perhaps that is why its message resonates so strongly: in the face of fragmentation, shared creation can become a bridge.<\/p>\n

“Each of these works is a poetic offering from maker to community”<\/em>, explains Carnick. “They are homages to those who have shaped us, but also critiques of attacks on vulnerable groups. Together, they remind us of our individual and collective capacity to make a positive impact”<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Foundry: from iron to light<\/h6>\n

The setting is no coincidence. The Foundry <\/em>occupies a former early 20th-century iron foundry within Wilhelm Hallen<\/em>, transformed by Bocci<\/em> in 2024 into a 1,680 m\u00b2 creative laboratory. A space steeped in industrial history, it has been reimagined as a stage for experimentation and light, faithful to Bocci<\/em>\u2019s spirit of allowing materials to reveal their hidden potential.<\/p>\n

The choice of venue speaks of continuity and transformation: from iron to glass, from heavy industry to contemporary creation. A metaphor that resonates with the very essence of Crafting Community<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

An anniversary with meaning<\/h6>\n

The exhibition coincides with an important milestone: 20 years of Bocci<\/em> and its 10th anniversary in Berlin. For the Canadian company, renowned for its experimental light sculptures, this exhibition is both a way of thanking the city that embraced it and of reaffirming its values: empathy, connection and dialogue.<\/p>\n

“Crafting Community reflects our core principles”<\/em>, notes Johannes Sch\u00f6n<\/em>, Bocci<\/em>\u2019s Director of Brand and Cultural Strategy. “We want to give something back to Berlin, showing how design can be a universal language that fosters empathy and connection”<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Diversity of voices, unity in making<\/h6>\n

The list of participants is as broad as it is diverse: artists from Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Austria, Lebanon, Tunisia, the United States, Georgia, Martinique and Japan. Each brings a unique vision, yet all share an understanding of design not only as aesthetics, but as a cultural and political act.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

From Yassine Ben Abdallah<\/em>\u2019s sugar machete, transforming colonial pain into poetic memory, to Victoria Yakusha<\/em>\u2019s folkloric sculptures, illuminating the resilience of the Ukrainian people; from Beatriz Morales<\/em>\u2019s monumental textiles, infused with Lebanese, Mexican and German roots, to Jerome Byron<\/em>\u2019s intimate kitchen table, turned into an everyday altar against structural violence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Each piece becomes testimony, protest or celebration. Together, they weave a choral tapestry where the personal and the collective are in dialogue.<\/p>\n

Textiles as storytellers of memory<\/h6>\n

Among the most moving works is Beatriz Morales<\/em>\u2019s installation “Where The Wild Things Are”<\/em> (2022). Canvases, agave fibres and natural dyes intertwine to honour cultural heritage and the land. A reminder that identity is always multiple and that our bond with nature is inseparable from our history.<\/p>\n

Similarly, “<\/em>Owning Our Shadow”<\/em> (2024), the tapestry by Lebanese collective Bokja<\/em>, incorporates fragments of memory following the 2020 Beirut explosion. Its message, accompanied by Kahlil Gibran<\/em>\u2019s words “We are all like the bright moon, we still have our darker side”<\/em>, is a hymn to resilience in times of fragility.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And in “Visions of the Lake”<\/em>, Guatemalan designer Estefan\u00eda de Ros<\/em> transforms weaving into a sacred chant to the women of Atitl\u00e1n and Mayan cosmologies, reminding us that threads are carriers of ancestral memory.<\/p>\n

Materials that speak<\/h6>\n

Every material used in the exhibition carries symbolic weight:<\/p>\n

– Kevlar<\/em> in Jerome Byron<\/em>\u2019s work turns a kitchen table into a protected space, questioning racial and police violence.<\/p>\n

– Sugar in Ben Abdallah<\/em>\u2019s piece restores the sweetness lost by a colonised culture.<\/p>\n

– Yar\u00e9<\/em> fibre in Fango<\/em>\u2019s Ibuju<\/em> series denounces deforestation and honours indigenous wisdom.<\/p>\n

– 3D<\/em> bioplastic in Platalea<\/em>\u2019s installation unites traditional Mexican wedding chairs into an arch of coexistence, proposing a dialogue between the ancestral and the technological.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Thus, material ceases to be mere medium: it becomes political and poetic language.<\/p>\n

Berlin as a creative bridge<\/h6>\n

The project is not limited to displaying works: it also seeks to foster interaction with the local community through workshops, guided tours and activities for all ages. Significantly, this is the first time that Hallen 06 <\/em>at Berlin Art Week<\/em> includes design content, marking the beginning of an annual series that will strengthen the presence of design within the city\u2019s cultural scene.<\/p>\n

As Carnick<\/em> affirms: “We want to inspire and connect the Berlin community through design”<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Work as activism<\/h6>\n

Many of the pieces function as acts of resistance:<\/p>\n

– Rooms Studio<\/em> presents benches and works on paper that honour Georgian persistence in the face of authoritarianism.<\/p>\n

– Rozana Montiel<\/em> offers a participatory exercise where visitors intervene in literary texts, creating a collective correspondence that transcends borders.<\/p>\n

– Rive Roshan<\/em> pays tribute to the “Woman, Life, Freedom”<\/em> movement with a sand vessel 3D-printed to evoke skirts in motion.<\/p>\n

All are proof that design can be a language of activism \u2014silent yet powerful.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Community, care and future<\/h6>\n

“Walking through Crafting Community”<\/em>, what resonates is not only the beauty of the works, but their capacity to generate care and connection. In a world scarred by conflict and crisis, this exhibition serves as a reminder that art and design are not luxuries but essential tools to imagine possible futures.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most symbolic gesture is the presence of Tunisian Sejnane <\/em>ceramics, crafted by women who keep alive a tradition recognised by UNESCO<\/em> as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity<\/em>. Objects shaped from ancestral clay that, in Berlin, remind us that community is woven by hands, memory and transmission.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A manifesto made of objects<\/h6>\n

Crafting Community<\/em> is not just an exhibition. It is a manifesto: a call to recognise the power of creativity as a communal act, a hymn to resistance and hope, an invitation to think of design as a language of care and possibility.<\/p>\n

At a time when individualism seems to prevail, these works remind us that we are always part of something larger: a history, a culture, a community.<\/p>\n

In Carnick<\/em>\u2019s words: “I hope visitors leave inspired, empowered and aware of the potential we each have to make a positive impact”<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Berlin knows it well: the future is designed together.<\/p>\n

Crafting Community<\/strong><\/p>\n

Exhibition at The Foundry \u2013 Wilhelm Hallen, Berlin.<\/p>\n

Part of Berlin Art Week 2025.<\/p>\n

Dates: 6\u201314 September.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

(*)<\/strong> Photos: Clemens Poloczek<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here, Crafting Community is presented: an exhibition bringing together an international group of artists and designers who explore how handcrafted objects can become vehicles of memory, resistance, celebration and, above all, community. Curated by Anna Carnick \u2014an American-born critic, curator and writer based in Berlin\u2014 the exhibition is framed within a global moment of uncertainty. 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