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The Perennial Institute is an experimental educational program exploring art and design through the lens of plants. Co-founded by Berlin-based artist Jai McKenzie and Minneapolis-based designer Julka Almquist, the inaugural week-long program will take place August 19 - 25 in Berlin, hosting artists and designers from across the globe who share an interest in expanding and deepening their practice through a multifaceted exploration of plants. They are taking applications for the Berlin program through July 15.
What were the origins of this idea?
Jai: I had organized an exhibition by artists working with meditative approaches. During the exhibition, a local pharmacist and yogi, Cordula Linke, led a plant meditation, and I felt a deep connection with the basil plant. It was one of those moments where I realized that many artists, myself included, are already working with plants, and that it’s a fantastic way to think through creativity.
I was also feeling frustrated with current educational structures and art schools, where costly degrees give little back, considering students’ investment in time and money, and an art industry that seems old and outdated. I felt inspired to design an experience where people can learn and create together in new ways, and Julka, whom I met by chance at Olafur Eliasson’s studio, felt like the perfect collaborator.
Why are you drawn to plants?
Jai: Plants are a fundamental aspect of our existence. They are cohabitants of this planet, and we believe they are our teachers. Plants are part of my consciousness in ways I’m only starting to understand. They nourish me. They liberate my imagination. I care for them, and they care for me.
Julka: Nature, as a domain, feels too big, but plants provide an opportunity to both focus and create expansive thinking. Plants offer a range of inspiration—from tiny pollen structures to huge ecosystems and networks of engagement. There are endless metaphors and potential to translate ideas and structures to different contexts. They also occupy an interesting space between the scientific and the mystical—a lot of creative energy exists in this space.
What does the program entail?
Jai: The program is very much an experiment, and I hope that it will always be like that. We focus on co-learning, co-creation, and collaboration with all of the participants.
To do this, we have created a space of possibility, and within that are experiential tours, sensory-tuning practices, forest and garden exploration, foraging, food arrangement, and Ikebana class. There is also the opportunity to move from concise literary readings to discursive and personal interpretations throughout each day.
What is your pedagogical philosophy?
Julka : We have both taught in traditional art and design school settings and found institutional practices to be limiting. We wanted to create our own framework for teaching that focuses on approaches that are embodied, experiential, feminine, and intuitive. We also believe that learning is inherently social and ought to explicitly present the opportunity to build strong relationships.
How did you two join forces?
Julka: I am from the United States and live in Minneapolis, and Jai is Australian and has been living in Berlin for the past six years. I used to teach at a school in Pasadena, California called Art Center College of Design, and one of my very talented students got a job as a graphic designer for Olafur Eliasson. She invited me to visit the studio in Berlin, so I went with a good friend who led a drawing meditation for Olafur’s studio. Jai attended the meditation, and we ended up having a long discussion afterward. Later, she got in touch with me to start a conversation about new forms of education, and the idea of the Perennial Institute emerged.
What makes this moment in time particularly interesting to dig into something like plants?
Julka: I think there are three fundamental reasons this is the right moment: First, we are living in a time where new questions of consciousness and agency are emerging. This is especially true in relationship to technology, like artificial intelligence and automation. I’ve found myself asking the question: Do humans own the concept of agency? This line of inquiry is also totally relevant in relationship to plants. We are at a unique moment to explore questions about sentience and agency beyond human comprehension, especially in the natural world.
Second, there is a fascinating trend that is happening related to mysticism and a return to modes of thinking that aren’t connected to scientific reason. We have been observing an embrace of multiple ways of knowing, and plants offer an opportunity to explore mystical ideas that exist beyond human consciousness.
Finally, there is a major trend happening related to personal transformation, and we feel that an experimental education experience with plants could be transformative. Through them we want to reconnect to our senses, our bodies, and our creativity to engage a deeper connection with ourselves.
Why Berlin?
Jai: Since moving here six years ago, I’ve connected with an incredibly vibrant cultural scene. Berlin is a creative and free city and also incredibly green, with a huge culture of urban gardening, sustainability, and people-propelled movements. It made sense to start locally.
Julka: Berlin also offers a critical mass of talented artists who work with plants. We have curated an incredible group as teachers throughout the week to share their unique points of view. The work of three of our teachers Lilia Luganskaia, Shota Nakamura, and Andrew Rewald are pictured here.
Jai: The Perennial Institute will take place in the gardens, parks and streets of Berlin. This is our classroom.
The Summer program in Berlin takes place August 19-25, there are few spots left, and they will be accepting applications through July 15.
Jessica Herman
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Scheltens & Abbenes are the sum total of a still-life photographer and the creative craftsmanship of an artist. They experiment with converting spatial dimensions into flat surfaces and explore intensively photography’s potential for creating illusion. Colours has a special importance in their work.‘The Workers’ is their last exhibition on show at the Ravestijn Gallery in Amsterdam. A bright statement !
It consists not only of still lives of painted flowers - printed large scale as to make the texture and every trace of use on the vans discernible - but also shows very mundane objects: different tools for gardening, beehives in various colours, a garbage can with layers of chemical paint spilled over its edges. On the photographs, however, the objects are transformed into highly stylised and aesthetic compositions, drawing attention to the colours and shapes, up to the point the viewer would almost forget their original context, as the play of textures and layers is endlessly fascinating.
What is not shown in these images are the humans hands that use the tools for gardening, to grow and cut the flowers the vans transport, that built and painted the beehives and tended to the bees. The images the viewers are left with are third hand, so to say. There are no flowers, nor bees, only man-made objects, all painted over, then taken up by the artists to be extracted from their context and to be made into an image.
The artists have added an extra layer, as it were, over these objects, and elevated them to aesthetic and abstract images - though still very recognizable, especially in their relation to each other. This layer serves as an extra remove but to remind the viewer of the original context of these objects and the processes of human intervention: to render objects useful, or, once assembled by the artists, to make appealing yet not obvious new compositions, images within the realm of art.
It is up to the viewer then, to imagine the possible narratives that these images allude to, the relation between man and nature, and between nature and aesthetics. This inevitably also leads to considerations as to the perilous position bees are now in due to pesticides and the impact their demise has on our ecosystem. Nature provides us generously with amazing beauty, but we can either admire it from a distance, or, as the viewer realises looking at these images, contemplate the deeper connections.
Until July 21st ‘The Workers’ is shown at the Ravestijn Gallery in Amsterdam
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Roza Janusz is a graduate of School of Form in Poznan in the field of process design. The designer focussed on the meaning of cultivating as a process between making and growing.For her graduation project, she created SCOBY; Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast.
Scoby is a symbiosis of making and growing in living packages production is a circular process inspired by vegetable cultivation. The starting point was the comparison of the farmer’s cultivation work to mass-production.The farmer became an engineer and the farm a factory. The farmer cultivates with tools, that is, he gives parameters in which growth takes place. To produce packaging that lives, we need tools, as well as for onions produce.Extract from agricultural waste is feeding material SCOBY( Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast). SCOBY package is like apple peel, protect inside and its eatable or serve as compost’’
The packaging exists of dry and semi-dry farmer products like a mix of herbs, instant dish, and seed packaging. It can be either eaten on his one, used to make tea or used as compost.
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SONIA DELAUNAY - ART DESIGN FASHION
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Sonia Delaunay: Art, Design, Fashionprovides a unified vision of the modernist pioneer’s work in painting, theatrical sets, advertising, interiors, fashion and textiles.
Published for a landmark exhibition at Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, and drawing on new scholarship that emphasizes the multidisciplinary character of her art, it reproduces pieces loaned from public institutions such as the Centre Pompidou, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Musée de la Mode de Paris and the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, as well as from international private collections.
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FEEL THE YARN // SAVE THE DATE
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SAVE THE DATE : Paris, September 5th and 6th.
New yarn collections for Fall- Winter 2019-2020
CONTACT
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EVENTS
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TREND SEMINARS
The HOUSE OF COLOURS
Home & Interior 2020
August 14, 2018
NEW YORK
AW 19-20 ENLIGHTMENT
August 15, 2018
NEW YORK
SUMMER 2020 COLOUR &TREND PREVIEW
August 15, 2018
NEW YORK
Details & Bookings
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TALKING TEXTILES
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TALKING TEXTILES #2
The wild and vibrant second issue of TALKING TEXTILES is organised around the culture of cloth. In this trend magazine, the mood is up and creativity is on the loose, celebrating the revival of textiles. This issue is filled with remarkable developments in textiles, art, clothes and interiors, from artisans and artists to mills, manufacturers, designers and innovators as well as talented graduates. With colour, textile and yarn forecasts by Li Edelkoort, a whirlwind of floating fibres, harvested yarns, tubular colours, woven fences and knitted architecture will fuel readers’ creative energy.
€60 plus shipping & handling
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MORE TRENDS
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TREND TABLET
Trendtablet explains how trends grow, evolve and flow, and helps us better understand and perceive how they interact in our daily lives. this tool accessed for free is open to comments and new ideas, please contribute and be part of our network .Enjoy!
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ANTI_FASHION
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This much-talked-about and thought-provoking manifesto by the world’s most respected trend forecaster covers the 10 main issues that indicate the fashion industry has reached breaking point. Edelkoort courageously confronts marketing and advertising, as well as challenging education, materials, manufacturing, retailing, designers, fashion shows, the press and consumers alike. This means that the economy of clothes will take over from the turnover of fashion. Therefore trend forecasting has changed as well, taking its leads from social change and finding creative ideas within lifestyle trends and consumer behavior. A break-through philosophy focusing on textiles, garment-making and the imminent revival of couture. It’s time to simply celebrate clothes!
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BLOOM FAITH
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Confronted with the adversary of human designed disasters and manmade political scandals paralyzing our planet and countries, people’s only recourse becomes faith, an almost forgotten principle. To have faith in the spirit of survival, to have faith in creative forces able to rebuild society, an intrinsic need to believe in the human race, especially in moments of bewildering despair. We need to trust our instincts to build a better future, full with genuine love towards ourselves and others, even those at fault. Being able to forgive, to understand, to comprehend, to taste the fear in others. To pledge an awareness of altruism, script a gospel of compassion. Desire needs to be embedded in empathy.
Recognizing their inspirations and yielding to innate creative urges, artists and designers will build up the needed confidence to create new matter, landscape other horizons, design decorative objects, weave unusual fibers, draw non-existent flowers, created with the deep conviction that aesthetic expressions will resonate with others and are able to heal and care for people. Faith grows from future generations, professing their reliance on inner strength, convinced to reroute society the way they see it; convivial, cooperative, concerting, concerned, a society where truth remains an important quality and flexible forms of constancy help to compose the rhythm of existence.
Lidewij Edelkoort.
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