LITHOMANIA

Overview

Rare stones—whether part of a collection or processed into small sculptures and jewels—have fascinated people for thousands of years. They trigger longings and even prompt criminal activity. Their extraction causes bloody conflicts, but at the same time the trading and processing of stones brings together people from the most remote regions of the world. In LithoMania students at the Idar-Oberstein Campus confront these ambivalent imperatives. As part of the exhibition series Design Lab at the Kunstgewerbemuseum [Museum of Decorative Arts] in Berlin, the students present their deliberations on this profound material in objects, drawings, photographs, and texts. The sketch-like documentation visualises the process and restores a lightness to the material that enables new approaches and a freedom of artistic expression.