Beyond Limit(ation)s exhibition, Cologne

The Gabrielle Ammann Gallery's
The Gabrielle Ammann Gallery's current exhibition, Beyond Limit(ation)s combines the work of three of visual culture's most celebrated designers. Fashion's prolific Hussein Chalayan's films play alongside seating sculptures by architect Zaha Hadid and German artist Florian Borkenhagen.
(Image credit: TBC)

At first blush, it's difficult to discern just what Hussein Chalayan, Florian Borkenhagen and Zaha Hadid have in common, never mind that they share enough aesthetic DNA to be put together in an exhibition.

But as Gabrielle Ammann gallery makes clear in its new show "Beyond Limit(ations)s", what the fashion designer, artist and architect share -- beyond their membership of a diaspora -- is a sense of movement, impermanence and exile.

That and an innate ability to challenge preconceived notions of what, say, a dress should look like (here, we're reminded forcibly of Chalayan's graduate show in which he buried his clothes in his back yard, dug them up and then sent them down the runway); how a pair of chairs can, in Borkenhagen's prodigious imagination, morph into a mobile confessional; or, in Hadid's case, why a building should even have walls in the first place.

Beyond Limit(ation)s is neither an ambitious production -- there are only about six pieces on show including video -- nor current; Hadid's sole entry, the amorphous 'Snowdrift' sculpture, was created in 2006. But as an unexpected perspective on the interconnection between fashion, art, design and architecture -- where the central theme is a thoughtful, philosophical and often beautiful deconstruction of the familiar -- this is a show worth making time in the diary for.

Florian Borkenhagen deals with the idea of a vagabonding existence.

Florian Borkenhagen deals with the idea of a vagabonding existence. While Hussein Chalayan picks out his own experience of exile as a central theme, Borkenhagen creates objects implicating the notions of mobility and spirituality.

(Image credit: TBC)

Chalayan stages the voluntary

Through the exhibited works, Chalayan stages the voluntary or forced journeys of the individual in a poetical way. The artist's work brings a transitory place into being, where limits merge together.

(Image credit: TBC)

Chalayan's video Aeroplane Dress shows

Chalayan's sophisticated yet unpretentious dynamic is evocative of Zaha Hadid's architectural creations. Chalayan's video Aeroplane Dress shows a technological dress made out of metal and plastic for travelling, communicating aesthetically and thematically with the white Corian sculptures by Hadid.

(Image credit: TBC)

Statue II Hussein Chalayan

The Absent Presence, Statue II
Hussein Chalayan
2005
material: composite polyester resin
W 53 x H 65 x D 36 cm

(Image credit: TBC)

Aeroplane Dress Hussein Chalayan

Aeroplane Dress
Hussein Chalayan
2001
single screen installation
black & white with sound
duration: 2'18''
a film written and directed by Hussein Chalayan

(Image credit: TBC)

Afterwords Hussein Chalayan

Afterwords
Hussein Chalayan
2000
single screen installation
color with sound
duration: 1'33"
a film written and directed by Hussein Chalayan
edition: 5 + 2 AP

(Image credit: TBC)

Seufzer Florian Borkenhagen

Seufzer
Florian Borkenhagen
2010
material: wood, Kavallerietuch,metal
W 60 x H 70 x D 65 cm

(Image credit: TBC)

Snow Drift Zaha Hadid

Snow Drift
Zaha Hadid
2006
material: LG HI-MACS (Mineralwerkstoff)
edition: 24 + 6 A.P.

(Image credit: TBC)

Portrait II Hussein Chalayan

The Absent Presence, Portrait II
Hussein Chalayan
2005
material: C-Print
W 100 x H 150 cm

(Image credit: TBC)

Florian Borkenhagen

SCV II
Florian Borkenhagen
2009
material: steel, Kavallerietuch, rubber
W 140 x H 89 x D 65 cm

(Image credit: TBC)

ADDRESS

Gabrielle Ammann gallery
Teutoburger Str.27
d-50678 Cologne

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Daven Wu is the Singapore Editor at Wallpaper*. A former corporate lawyer, he has been covering Singapore and the neighbouring South-East Asian region since 1999, writing extensively about architecture, design, and travel for both the magazine and website. He is also the City Editor for the Phaidon Wallpaper* City Guide to Singapore.