Works by Indio Möglich, Lasse Sylvest Lilleoer, Et Arrangement, Maral Taşkırıcı, Clara Schweers, Thomas Woltmann, alongside historical designs
Vanitas in Use I expands the art-historical concept of vanitas by situating it within the context of functional objects and lived environments. Rather than presenting vanitas as mere symbolic imagery, the exhibition asks what happens when these ideas are contained in things made, handled, and used. A vessel that outlasts its contents. A wardrobe that outlasts its owners. A surface that bears the mark of time without representing it.
Bringing together works in glass, metal, ceramic, and wood, the exhibition attends to craft as a site of meaning, to the labour of making, and to what materials carry long after making is finished. Transience, fragility, and value are not illustrated here but embedded in the weight of a cast frame, the translucency of blown glass, and the devotion preserved in painted ornament.
Within Innenkreis' curatorial framework, objects from different periods are brought together not as contrast but as continuity. Design is not approached chronologically. A wardrobe made in 1863 and a vessel made now occupy the same present tense, both subject to use, care, and the slow pressure of time.