HfG Ulm: Exhibition Fever
With the exhibition “HfG Ulm: Exhibition Fever“, the HfG-Archiv is dedicated to the connection between design and exhibitions. The presentation provides a new view of the design school in an international context. For the first time, the focus is on the HfG exhibition activities, which contributed significantly to its worldwide perception.
The numerous school and commissioned exhibitions conceived by the HfG between 1953 and 1968 and presented at home and abroad receive special attention. Unpublished source texts and historical material, including exhibition stands, system designs and photographs, illustrate the design and exhibition practice of the HfG. Otl Aicher played a decisive role in both theory and practice. Visitors are transported back to the 1950s and 60s, a time of rampant “exhibition fever”, as one contemporary commented. Almost every aspect of everyday life was designed and presented in exhibitions and at fairs. The HfG contributed significantly to this exhibition fever. The presentation focuses for the first time on this part of the worldwide development.
As one of the most influential design colleges of the 20th century, the HfG pioneered today’s understanding of design as an interdisciplinary practice. The HfG’s idea of democratic design, which manifested itself in the so-called “ulmer modell” (ulm model), was carried into the world through numerous exhibitions. It used internal university exhibitions and trade fair appearances for large companies such as Braun, BASF or SONOR as a field of experimentation to construct and test exhibition systems. Industrially manufactured trade fair and exhibition systems established themselves as the standard in the 1960s, and the HfG’s exhibitions made an important contribution to this development.
The exhibition “HfG Ulm: Exhibition Fever” marks the conclusion of the four-year research project funded by the Volkswagen Foundation “Exhibiting Design. The Visibility of the HfG Ulm”, which is jointly supported by the HfG-Archiv Ulm, the Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences and the Folkwang University of the Arts Essen.
With kindly support
