IN FOCUS WEEKEND

Location: Dortmunder Kunstverein, Rheinische Str. 1, 44137 Dortmund
Price: free of charge
Language: German
Registration: only required for the workshops at anmeldung(et)dortmunder-kunstverein.de

The Show and Tell weekend is a highlight in the annual program of the bar and workshop space Wendy vs Tinkerbell. With exciting guests and open workshops, it brings theory and practice together in various formats and invites collective exchange of experiences: on processes of making, authorship, and structures of solidarity.

The events are dedicated to craft, reflecting on its historically fraught relationship with the concept of art from a contemporary perspective: the processes of devaluation that craft underwent during industrialization today resurface through AI, which challenges our understanding of art and intellectual creation. Conversely, with ongoing digitalization, a renewed appreciation of craft-based processes is emerging: while technologies are becoming increasingly smart, exchange about manual practices offers a way to counteract the post-industrial erosion of social milieus. In this sense, craft today can enable agency, empowerment, and positioning vis-à-vis entrenched structures—shifting attention not only to materials, techniques, and tools, but also to the politics of labor and community. Through making, a new sensitivity arises for the complexity of the things that surround us.

Using the examples of ornament, miniature, or utilitarian object, craft is approached as an aesthetic practice, a site of intercultural knowledge transfer, and a space of participation. A lecture, a panel discussion, workshops, and sound interventions invite people to come together and create a forum to critically question the contemporary relevance of the concept of art.

Curator: Rebekka Seubert
Curatorial Assistant: Linda Schröer
Project Assistance: Michael Broschmann
Organized in collaboration with Philip Wiegard

SATURDAY

12–3 PM WORKSHOP
Association of Tamil Artists: Flower Garlands
Participants will learn techniques of garland making, explore the cultural significance of flowers in Tamil culture, and collaboratively create floral objects in an intercultural exchange.

5 PM LECTURE
Thomas Weil: Who is afraid of Ornament?
Thomas Weil is an architect, artist, and curator. In his book New Grammar of Ornament (2021), he develops an open system of ordering ornamental forms, highlighting their aesthetic, cultural, and resistant potential.

6 PM PANEL DISCUSSION
with Annekathrin Kohout, Astrid Wilk, and Philip Wiegard, moderated by Rebekka Seubert, Artistic Director
The Small – Does Art Have a Minimum Size? The small is political: social change calls for a reconsideration of the relationship between size, impact, and validity in contemporary art.

8 PM SOUND
Zainab Lax
Dortmund-based harpist Zainab Lax combines Western and Eastern musical traditions in her compositions. Her meditative soundscapes emerge through live looping and improvisation.

SUNDAY

11 AM–2 PM WORKSHOP
Philip Wiegard: Slime
This workshop explores the artistic potential of slime as a process-based medium, addressing materiality, traces, and the experience of working processes.

3–6 PM WORKSHOP
VKII Ruhrbezirk: Mosaic
In this workshop, participants will assemble materials into mosaics and reflect on the aesthetic, technical, and cultural aspects of this image-making technique.

ABOUT WENDY VS. TINKERBELL

Wendy vs Tinkerbell is a bar and workshop space run by the artist Philip Wiegard at the Dortmunder Kunstverein. From 2025 to 2027, it serves as a laboratory for practical and intercultural knowledge transfer, with a special focus on craft and aesthetic practice.

Wendy vs Tinkerbell ist ein Projekt im Rahmen des Programms Kreativ.Quartiere Ruhr, gefördert vom Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen und umgesetzt von ecce – european centre for creative economy GmbH.

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