Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn New exhibition opens: “Crafts and Professions in Transition”

Bonn · Who still has their pants sewn by a tailor? Many trades and professions have changed or are even threatened with extinction. A new exhibition at the Bundeskunsthalle sheds light on how the times have changed.

The sewing machines remain still at the new exhibition at the Bundeskunsthalle: "The Last of Their Kind - Crafts and Professions in Transition”.

The sewing machines remain still at the new exhibition at the Bundeskunsthalle: "The Last of Their Kind - Crafts and Professions in Transition”.

Foto: Benjamin Westhoff

A pink vest is pinned under the needle of a sewing machine, next to it a tailor's mannequin with a skirt. At the next table, a seamstress has been working on a rifleman's uniform. In the exhibition "The Last of Their Kind - Crafts and Professions in Transition" at the Bundeskunsthalle, this scene from a carnival tailor shop in the Eifel region has been recreated.

Three tables with sewing machines are placed close together in the middle of the room. Only the chairs are empty and the sewing machines are no longer running. The tailor shop in the Eifel region closed down in 2002. Like many others, it could not keep up with the mass production of clothing.

Large corporations take over from local companies

In its early days, the textile industry was strongly represented in the region and especially in the Lower Rhine area. Garment workshops produced elaborately decorated clothing for the church, while other companies designed haute couture and everyday fashions that were later sold on Königsallee in Düsseldorf, for example.

Processes such as globalization and digitization have ensured, among other things, that local companies are being replaced by large, global corporations. The exhibition at the Bundeskunsthalle documents what this has meant for workers from the region.

The profession of dressmaker is not the only one in transition: supermarkets replaced "corner" stores as retail expanded. The occupation of "cashier" disappeared. This change continues with the use of self-service checkouts.

The personal interaction between customer and cashier is becoming less and less common. Typesetters have also been replaced by technical devices. Today, graphic designers do their job. But they, too, sometimes fear artificial intelligence and the ability to generate designs with a click.

"People lose more than just money when they lose their jobs"

"Professions are about identity," said Eva Kraus, director of the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, at the opening of the exhibition on Thursday. Expertise and skills, parts of everyday culture die out with a profession. She said the exhibition at the Kunsthalle deliberately focuses on the region to encourage people to engage in dialogue, share their thoughts and remember.

Part of the exhibition is a dark room on whose wall job titles are projected, they appear and disappear again. Saddle-maker and organ builder are among the apprenticeships that are slowly dying out. On the other hand, the installation shows that more and more young people are taking up training as mechatronics engineers or IT systems management specialists.

"People lose more than just money when they lose their jobs," explained Bettina Kohlrausch of the Economic and Social Science Institute (WSI) in Düsseldorf, which contributed to the exhibition in Bonn. For many people in dying professions, the loss of a job also means the loss of social recognition. Craft trades create identity on a personal and local level.

They are also an important integration tool in a region, creating a sense of belonging. The loss of these professions is therefore all the more painful for a region, the expert points out, using the example of coal mining. For many years, the "miners" and the "Glück auf" (the phrase miners said for good luck before going into the mines) were part of the Ruhr region's self-image.

Miner lamps and miners' uniforms are reminders of the mining industry

December 21, 2018, was the last day of work for many miners in the coal industry in Germany. Then they were told, "You'll have to find another job," a former miner recalls in a video clip that is part of the exhibition. Miner lamps and miners' uniforms remain as mementos. There is also a very special exhibit: one of the last pieces of hard coal mined from the Prosper-Haniel colliery in Bottrop.

At the time, the miners presented the piece of coal to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. "No other profession that was threatened with extinction experienced such broad social support and received similarly large amounts of financial aid," the exhibition says.

A profession never disappears without a trace, says Kohlrausch: The expertise of individual occupational fields always shapes the region in which they were based. In some places, this has led to specialization, a so-called "upskilling" process, and high-quality niche products have emerged.

This is evident, for example, in the bakery trade. Customers are still willing to pay more money for handmade bread. And the variety is great: There are over 3,000 different types of bread in Germany.

CRAFTS AND PROFESSIONS IN TRANSITION

Exhibition at the Bundeskunsthalle

"The Last of Their Kind" will be on display at the Bundeskunsthalle from December 3, 2022 to April 2, 2023. The exhibition is open Tuesdays from 10 am to 7 pm and Wednesdays from 10 am to 9 pm. Thursdays through Sundays and on holidays, opening hours are from 10 am to 7 pm.

Information about the program is available by phone: 0228/ 9171 243 or by mail vermittlung@bundeskunsthalle.de. Interested parties can also register for group tours at this address.

Original text: Franziska Klaes - Translation: ck

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