CON
CONFriedrichDippmann is a Berlin-based collaborative between two artists – Agnes Friedrich and Ivonne Dippmann.
Starting off with a fashion- and textile feature on Dippmanns ongoing artbook-production Liebeslied Chemnitz – Tel Aviv in 2016, FriedrichDippmann initiated a textile-based project under the catchy title thekidswantcommunism.
Its core and theme have been inspired by a conference on communism at CCA, Tel Aviv as part of the exhibition The Kids Want Communism at MoBY: Museums of Bat Yam curated by Joshua Simon.Within the process of Liebeslied Chemnitz – Tel Aviv, FriedrichDippmann launched a textile collaboration that created a dialogue between Tel Aviv and Chemnitz. We combined the title of Joshuas exhibition with the iconography of the Karl Marx bust in Chemnitz. With a somehow ‘romantic view’ on communism we created various patterns, limited to a four colour system, that were translated into knitwear technology. Together with the professorship of textile technologies at TU Chemnitz and maximo-Strickmoden we designed and manufactured a first series of twelve individual knitted sweaters.
As part of the artbook we documented these prototypes in Tel Aviv and featured twelve friends along with their individual stories at their favourite place-to-be. I interviewed friends and colleagues who I embrace for their vision, mindfulness and ability to share their life and ideas with others. Their individual choice to live in Israel is a crucial aspect and influence for their way of life and vision. The interviews and images will be published along with a short introduction by Tal Gafny and myself as heart and center piece of the book.thekidswantcommunism underlines the fragility of ones identity in a society based on a multi-cultural approach in a Jewish nation-state. Moreso reminding us to keep values such as a equity or tolerance at heart.
The different design titles carry the names of those friends and colleagues that jumped into the first prototypes and trusted us to share and talk about their lives. Thank you Anna Pakosz, Michael Tesfay, Benjamin Mecz, Yaniv Shapira, Gregory Abou, Michelle Medenblik, Gil Karniel, Yotam Mahler, Timothy Crosland, Stacy Goltsev, Yael Tabitha Parker and Sarah Reifschneider.
The motivating feedback during Tel Aviv-production inspired us to come up with an upgraded, high-end version as limited edition – that is now up for sale (sweater 365 Euro, beanie 65 Euro). The edition of eighty sweaters has been produced together with the professorship of textile technologies TU Chemnitz, maximo-Strickmoden and Strickchic in Apolda. It was of importance to us that thekidswantcommunism is locally produced, supporting the spirit of Chemnitz and its former industry that has been ‘heart’ of textile production in Saxony, Germany in the past century. maximo-Strickmoden (former VEB* Polar), a family-run company since 1898, is the only company that survived the transition from socialism to capitalism in Chemnitz after reunification.
We wish for each item to find their proper owner and partner in crime. All interviews and images produced in Tel Aviv in autumn 2017 will be published as part of Liebeslied Chemnitz – Tel Aviv this year. The process of both projects is documented under #liebesliedtlvc #lltlvc or #thekidswantcommunism #tkwc. (The release of the publication has been delayed several times due to the enormous work involved in production and editing.)
*VEB: nationally owned company
We’d like to say thank you to everyone who has been involved and supported this project, especially to our partners, models and Joshua Simon who invited this project as part of the closing event of The Kids Want Communism at MoBY Museums in November 2017. There we presented the first edition as performance piece.
For more details and orders, please visit: www.friedrichdippmann.com. Follow us on Insta or Facebook to stay posted about upcoming projects and some behind-the-scenes in Tel Aviv and Chemnitz.
© Photography: Studio Ivonne Dippmann, Alex Winton, Goni Riskin & FriedrichDippmann
www.friedrichdippmann.com www.ivonnedippmann.eu studio@ivonnedippmann.eu
