Porzellanikon Selb – Selb European Industrial Museum

The trend towards mass-produced goods and serial production began in the late 1920s. By and large people turned away from Historism and its fancy forms. The intention was for porcelain to be affordable for everyone, pleasant to use, and timeless, in other words: stylish design for every day of the week! For the first time ever, porcelain became a generally accessible commodity; it was inexpensive, suitable for everyday use, and thus mass-produced in the positive sense of the term.

As with so many things, the idea came to Europe from America via a roundabout route. In the USA, architects took up the challenge of making form serve function. Sleek, easy-to-handle forms were developed, with Bauhaus leading the way. After the Second World War, design devotees ensured that objects made of porcelain were practical and elegant. Design had an ennobling effect while at the same time assuring everyday functionality. The best dinner services and functional ware conceived by world-famous designers such as Wagenfeld, Mendini and Sarpaneva are highlighted in the exhibition by their placing on a raised plinth or by their illumination from all sides.

Porcelain is not just ideal for making coffee cups; in fact, the range of applications is virtually inexhaustible. As early as the “Gründerzeit” era, the prosperous middle classes were decorating their hallways with fountains and covering their walls and floors with porcelain tiles. Portugal was especially renowned for its “azulejos” (tiles) that decorated building façades and interiors. Since the days of Art Déco, translucent porcelain has been a particularly attractive material for making electric lamps. Porcelain columns and wall designs as in the “Palast der Republik” in the former German Democratic Republic show the almost endless opportunities for the material’s application. Bathrooms by contemporary designers complete the picture in this presentation.

Tell me how you live, and I’ll tell you who you are! Is there any truth in the maxim? This section of the exhibition deals with the use of porcelain during recent decades and with the underlying reasons. Film clips and magazine cuttings aim to provide some answers: Which cups have been used in the making of famous films? And: Why do McCafe customers prefer drinking from china rather than from paper cups? Just two of the many questions that are answered in recorded interviews that form part of the exhibition. Imaginative displays present a wide range of lifestyles, from purism, through country house style, to the Versace Home Collection.

What will the design of tomorrow look like? What will be different? Will there still be tea services? How will design respond to changes in society? Finding solutions to these problems is the main challenge facing us as we enter the 21st century. A number of European schools of design, their professors and students, have taken up the task of investigating porcelain’s future. Based on experiments and innovative approaches, the results will surprise and astound you. 300+x gives the visitor an amazing and unusual view of the future. Insights become forecasts – and vice versa!

Even the early manufactories looked to artists for inspiration. However, porcelain was only considered to be art after the involvement of Max Adolf Pfeiffer and the inception of the Schwarzburg workshops, where Ernst Barlach’s sculptures were made. Today, porcelain has still lost nothing of its fascination for artists as a working material: Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Arp and Henry Moore were all inspired by the possibilities the material offers, by its plasticity and its hardness, and by the way it lends itself to reproduction. As well as presenting the best of European work, a consideration of the current status of porcelain and possible future developments are considered. The answers that twelve renowned contemporary artists come up with through their interaction with porcelain can be seen in the exhibition “From a King’s Dream to Mass Production”.