Exhibition at Alien Art Centre, Kaohsiung (TW), 15.2.–23.6.2019
Franz Bette has been considering matters of design and critically examining the composition of jewellery, especially its conceptual and artistic formulation, for over 50 years. Born in the middle of Germany, his thinking and his work are anchored in European culture. For the exhibition at ALIEN Art Centre and for the new audience in Taiwan, he has developed a body of work which internalises his experience in Asia. For this he allows new elements to intervene in his artistic approach. His Western-influenced vocabulary of metal has been expanded by materials with Asian connotations, such as porcelain, bamboo, wood and textile. He works with these materials aware of the tradition and meaning anchored in the Asian culture; however, in examining and appropriating them, Franz Bette goes his own way according to his purpose or his intuition.
This exhibition is organised by the ALIEN Art Centre in collaboration with the Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt a/M., Germany, curated by Dr. Sabine Runde, Senior Custodian, Curator of Applied Art from the Middle Ages to the Present at the Museum Angewandte Kunst. Exhibits are loaned from the Artist, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim and Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau, Germany.
The accompanying publication is designed by Vier5, France – the visual designer of the 14th Kassel documenta – printed and published just recently in our programme.
