Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

hamburg, germany
18 December 2012 – 1 April 2013

From 18 December 2012 onward, the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg will present the exhibition «Out to Sea? The Plastic Garbage Project» produced by the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich. Hamburg will be the first venue in the show’s international tour; it will then continue on to Finland and Denmark. The project and the tour are being financed by the Drosos Foundation. The presentation in Hamburg is being made possible with generous support from the project partner Michael Otto Stiftung für Umweltschutz. The show takes a critical look at the consumer and throw-away society. The chief emphases are the tremendous amounts of plastic waste which make their way into the oceans every day, the consequences of the pollution for nature and mankind, and various approaches to solving this global problem. A huge heap of plastic waste found in three oceans forms the show’s centrepiece. Following the new installation of the permanent design exhibition, the MKG will thus turn its focus to the background and consequences of the design and production society and the negative aspects of mass consumption and the supposedly infinite availability of things. The port metropolis Hamburg, whose economic mainstay is maritime trade, is virtually predestined to serve as a venue for this exhibition. What is more, a large proportion of the waste heap on display in the show comes from the popular holiday island of Fehmarn in the Baltic Sea. Encompassing films, photos, drawings, objects, installations, cartoons and consumer articles, the exhibition provides insight into the plastic problem and inform visitors about numerous facts, circumstances and interrelationships.

The show will be accompanied by an extensive mediation programme for children, teenagers and adults. Workshops and discussion forums with scientists, designers, producers and environmentalists will provide impulses for more enlightened action and sensitize visitors to the topic of plastic.

The Hamburg venue is being sponsored by the Lighthouse Foundation, HAMBUR WASSER, Stadtreinigung Hamburg andthe IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen e.V.