Wintersemester 2022/2023, BA/MA Textil- und Material-Design Exzellenzcluster , Textil_Startseite , Textil_Startseite_Forschungsmitarbeitende

DAOULA | sheen Exhibition at TA T Berlin (November 18, 2022, to April 29, 2023)

The exhibition »DAOULA | sheen« focuses on the natural formation and the cultural history of wild silk obtained from caterpillars in West Africa, and on the many and complex ways in which this unique material is viewed by microbiologists, materials scientists, and architects in Germany. Curated by members of the Cluster of Excellence "Matters of Activity" Laurence Douny, Karin Krauthausen, and Felix Sattler, and co-created by a large and diverse multidisciplinary team --many members of this team are based at Weißensee School of Art and Design Berlin--, this unusual project sets out to stimulate dialogue between West African craft, European science, and design.

 

The exhibition will be on view at the Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin from November 18, 2022, to April 29, 2023 before being shown at the Musée de la Musique de Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. To find out how wild silk is making its way from Burkina Faso to Berlin, follow the Matters of Activity Instagram channel.

In Burkina Faso ›daoula‹ is a term meaning ›sheen‹ or ›charisma.‹ For the Marka-Dafing community daoula is one of the natural characteristics of certain animals, humans, and things. However, each community has its own unique access to the meaning of and the knowledge about daoula: silk producers from Burkina Faso, microbiologists, materials scientists, and architects from Germany each have their own terms and their own specific sets of tools. In laboratories in Berlin the caterpillar’s mouth, the spinner’s spindle, and the weaver’s loom are replaced by microscopes and pipettes. In Berlin artschool workshops the work with threads is scaled up and transformed into a proposal for human habitats. Right from the outset, however, daoula is the result of a collective activity: in the West African savannah the wild silkworms of the genus ›Anaphe/Epanaphe‹ set out in search of a suitable tree to collectively build a nest in which each individual spins its own cocoon and begins its metamorphosis. These cocoons then become a precious material from which different communities in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Nigeria extract the wild silk that is woven into prestigious cloths. Now wild silk cocoons are traveling from Safané (Burkina Faso) to Berlin to be examined by materials scientists, molecular biologists, anthropologists, cultural scientists, architects, and designers, who want to understand what they see, what this material can do, and why it does what it does. Is it something intrinsic in the material itself? Or is it due to the spinning and weaving processes? And what is the nature of these processes? Is it due to chemical processes, the intervention of bacteria? And where is the sheen that the local communities in Burkina Faso value so much but which is so difficult for the human eye educated in European traditions to recognize? The knowledge and the exchange of knowledge between these different actors is the focus of an exhibition that will be shown first at the Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin and then at the Musée de la Musique Georges Ouedraogo in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). West African wild silk is on its way—informing and inspiring a dialogue between West African craft, European science, and design.

 

Curators: Laurence Douny, PhD, Dr. Karin Krauthausen, and Felix Sattler

 

LOCATION

Tieranatomisches Theater

Campus Nord, Haus 3

Philippstraße 13

10115 Berlin

 

November 18, 2022, to April 29, 2023

 

Opening Hours: Tue - Sat, 2 - 6 pm

Öffnungszeiten: Di–Sa, 14-18 Uhr

 

free admission / Eintritt frei

 

Co-constructed with

 

Burkina Faso:

Abdoulaye Séré

Salif Sawadogo

Lonsani Dayo

Hezita Dayo

Afoussata Fofana

Souleyman Sakira

David Dao

Bibata Sanogo

Mamadou Séré

Adama Konate

Mahamadi Ilboudo, Musée de la Musique Georges Ouedraogo

 

Germany:

Elaine Bonavia

Saskia Buch

Prof. Dr. Karola Dierichs

Dr. Michaela Eder

Jessica Farmer

Dr. Heike Illing-Günther, Saxon Textile Research Institute (STFI)

Sara Hassoune

Skander Hathroubi, PhD

Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten

Prof. Dr. Regine Hengge

José Ignacio Hernandez

Jens Mählmann, Saxon Textile Research Institute (STFI)

Martha Maria Panzer

Iva Rešetar

Nikolai Rosenthal

Clara Santos Thomas

Prof. Christiane Sauer

Jasmin Sermonet

Maxie Schneider

Jojo Shone

Thomas Stach, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Wilfried Strauß, Saxon Textile Research Institute (STFI)

Thabo Thindi, filmmaker, photographer, artist

Project subjects BA/MA Textil- und Material-Design