Helm/Helmet/Yelmo

Contained emptiness describes the original state of every vessel. The vessel separates the inside from the outside and through its materiality and style determines both the function and value of the contents it is devoted to. But only the empty shell reveals something about temporal, cultural and geographical contexts.
In the work Helm/Helmet/Yelmo, Cuban artist duo “Los Carpinteros” elaborate on the different handling of the vessel over the course of six thousand years. At the same time however, similar formal languages and design mechanisms become visible. The vessels from the Archaeology, Global Art and Applied Arts Collection stem from a wide variety of geographical regions and epochs. Their selection is influenced by and based on formal language, uniqueness and timelessness.

The presentation of the Museum Folkwang Collection is complemented by selected vessels from Glasmuseum Hentrich at Kunstpalast Düsseldorf and the Design faculty of Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences in Krefeld. Whereas the glass museum complements the presentation with a selection of European glass art from the Middle Ages through to the modern day, the Design faculty exhibits provide insights into the teaching of applied process technology in the fields of ceramics, porcelain and glass.