The second instalment of the “Contemporary Craft” exhibition series initiated in 2022 at the MK&G will showcase the 30-year oeuvre of the multi-award-winning artist Margit Jäschke (b. 1962). Jäschke describes herself as a wanderer between different art worlds, having created an entirely original body of work that straddles the boundaries between jewellery, installation, painting and sculpture. She makes no distinction between wearable jewellery and autonomous artwork, so that graphic elements can be found in her jewellery while, conversely, jewellery becomes part of her paintings and collages.

In the largest solo exhibition to date, with over 230 works, Jäschke deliberately and dynamically plays with proportions and dimensions in her work. Flat brooches claim more space when put on pedestals, while smaller brooches look like wearable paintings. The exhibition architecture, designed by Jäschke herself, echoes the interplay between flat and voluminous, fragile and robust elements, lending the pieces on view a complex yet lyrical air. The subtitle of the exhibition, “Kairos”, is emblematic of Jäschke’s oeuvre: Kairos is the Greek god of the auspicious moment that begs to be seized. If one asks Jäschke about the “common thread” running through her work, she does not instantly cite ideas, concepts, materials or processes but rather the notion of this “favourable moment”.

The new exhibition series “Contemporary Craft”, to be presented annually to accompany the MK&G messe, spotlights the work of major international artists and craftspeople in an effort to raise the profile of craft in contemporary discourse while transcending the traditional boundaries between art and craft.

“Margit Jäschke – Kairos” at the MK&G is the last stop for the exhibition, which has already been shown at the Grassi Museum of Applied Arts in Leipzig and the Pforzheim Jewellery Museum in 2022 and at Galerie Biró in Munich in 2023.

The exhibition is supported by the Hans Brökel Foundation for Science and Culture.