woody-baer's posterous

Gerhard Bär Karl – Marx – Str.168
Dipl. Designer/Artist 12043 Berlin

Tel. 030 68409275
Mobil 0171 2834238
woodybaer@t-online.de
Career to date:

1981 – 87 Faculty of Interior Architecture at Mainz Institute of
Technology
1987 – 89 Freelance work
1989 Collaboration with TRAU in Turin, Arredamenti per ufficio
Development and realisation of the "Barbarossa" office furniture range
1990 Living in Italy
1991 Living in France
1992 Bär + Knell Design is founded together with Beata Bär and Hartmut Knell
www.baer-knell.de
2008 fair-ethics, www.fair-ethics.com together with Wolf Guenter Thiel

Selected public collections
Die Neue Sammlung, Munich, Germany
Victoria & Albert Museum, London , UK
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia , USA
Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany
Kunsindustraad Museum,Copenhagen
Museum Gent, Belgium
MuseumKunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany
Islandics Museum of Design, Island
MAK, Vienna, Austria
Technik Museum, Vienna, Austria
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Stewart Collection,Montreal

Projects:
Fair-ethics,Berlin, Germany, www.fair-ethics.com, mit Wolf-Guenther Thiel
Virtual Methan factory
Mt.Everest cleaning action
Soziales Plastik

Bär + Knell
about the artistical attitude.
The present creation of art, and at its top Bär + Knell, leaves the approach of l`art pour l`art and devotes itself to the sociocultural challenges and problems of its age. As artists they take over responsibility within the scope of their excellent creative and intellectual possibilities by using art as a means of communication to convey urgent problems of social policy. This includes interventions into business undertakings and associations, by artistically developing relevant models for solutions of economic value.
In this symbiotic relationship of art and the sociopolitical and sociocultural problems Bär + Knell count among the personalities of artists, who in these days are excelling in this respect.
Why is art made of plastic trash:
Art has been used as a means to communicate and convey messages throughout the history up to the begin of the modern age.
We consider our work in this tradition of communication and the conveyance of meanings.
What could convey the message on the problematic nature of taking care of trash better than the trash itself ?
The plastic packaging is taken off of its original function and is made an medium of significance.
What is familiar to everyone and has passed through million pairs of hands is given a new value.
For this reason we are using plastic as basic material in its physical as well as in its spiritual sense.
It is no longer interesting to ask where the following boundries lie:
between art and design, between design and art,
instead it is thinking about things, how they are made, used, their origins, their significance and their future.
Gerhard Bär

“ In my search for new creations……
I consciously turned my attention to garbage, waste, discarded products – quite simply, the unusable.” ( Arman, 1961 )
In the beginning there was no design and no art. In the beginning there was waste.
And then the solution to give all the thrown-out plastic waste a new existence.
Plurality and ecology are two of the great challenges of our future. Our goal is to work against the modern trend for uniformity:
To reject uniform masses in favour of mass-produced one-offs.
Not that we support the “ anything goes “ plurality, which simply jumbles together any old bits and pieces at random for the purpose of reproduction. On the contrary, our aim is to develop a new concept of shapes and forms; quite simply to design and manufacture things that are fascinating and unique, that have never been produced before. To do this, we have to call up long-forgotten images, habits, needs and expectations, and to change. This is basically a reorientation phase, in the course of which we employ methods and topics found in human creativity. Our objective is to move into the realms of the unbelievable, to create the unforeseeable, to design objects that reflect the spirit of the times, to make an impact on living conditions and to help shape new attitudes and behaviour.
This is the path we have been following since 1992, driven along by the material itself and the challenge it poses.
Our work is the means of achieving aesthetic and ecological targets. And everything revolves around the principle of recycling. Plastic packaging waste – from bags for potato crisps to bottles for fabric softeners – is used to produce useful everyday items.
The original colours and printed brand names and logos that consumers know so well are all there; they have just been changed slightly by the manufacturing process. Each object is unique as regards shape, colour and structure. This consistent search for individualism may and should be seen as a protest against the trend towards a faceless society in which not only sheep but also lifestyles and consumer habits are cloned.
All objects are a testament to their times, giving insight into consumerism and, in fact, acting as a mirror of everyday life.

2010
Stewart Collection, Montreal
2009
Indianapolis Museum of Art
2008
Tibet, Base-Camp, Mount – Everest, Cleaning action
Dubai, UAE, Re-art one, Lighting Installation
MAK Vienna, Austria, formlos
Stilwerk, Berlin, Montana Art Tour
2007
Poznan, Posen, Polen, Asia – Europe mediations, Gerhard Bär, Mount – Everest, Tibet, cleaning action
Milano, Salone Satellite, Jubiläumsausstellung
Islandics Museum of Design, Ausstellungsbeteiligung
Mülleimer, Landkreis Heilbronn
ABU DHABI, UAE, Arabian Mosaic,
Mannheim, Cafe Filsbach
2006
Tibet ( China ) Mt. Everest Cleaning Action at the third Pole of the Earth
Nacht der Langen Museen, Ludwigshafen, BASF AG, Gesellschaftshaus, Farben des
Konsums
Commerzbank, Frankfurt ( Farben des Konsums )
Passagen/Köln
2005
Weltjugendtag 2005, Köln ( Marienfeld, Abschlussveranstaltung Vigil )
EXPO-nate, Mannheim
WTO 2005, Shanghai, China
2004
Ministerium für Wirtschaft und Arbeit NRW, K - 2004
On the wall, London
Satellite 2004, Milano
Passagen, Köln, ESPRIT - Shop
2003
CITTaZIONI: un caso di Public art a Milano, porta Venezia, Milano
"Farben des Konsums" Narva/Osramturm, Berlin Oberbaumcity
Recycling Koziol "wir lieben unser Land" Berlin Style Showroom
Recycling Rentmeister, Galerie Otto Schweins, Köln
2002
Calgon - Bibliothek, Art Forum, Berlin
Galleria Antonio Battaglia, Mailand
Galleria Antonia Jannone, Mailand
2001
RecycleBar, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf
“Farben des Konsums”, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf
“Die Farbe des Himmels”, Galerie Norbert Ebert, Darmstadt
Kunst Köln 2001, Galerie Norbert Ebert
Galleria Antonia Jannone, Mailand
2000
Afrikanischer Pavillon, Expo 2000, Hannover
Galerie Brigitte Schenk, Köln, Plastik und Licht
1999
Internationales Designzentrum, Berlin, „Mehr als Plastik „
1998
“Kunststoff 2000 - Visionen aus recyceltem Kunststoff”, Cubus Kunsthalle Duisburg
1997
Eva Maria Roer, Bad Kissingen
1995
Kunststoffe 2000 - Visionen aus recyceltem Kunststoff, made in.., Düsseldorf
1994
Umweltministerium Baden Württemberg
Katakomben, Berlin

Groupe Exhibition (Selection)

2006
Die Welt der Kindermöbel, Möbe lMuseum Wien
2005
Umweltbundesamt Dessau, RE – ART ON
Passagen,Köln
2004
Coburger Designtage Farben des Konsums
KunstNacht Bad Wimpfen
ReArtOne, Ihlienworth
2003
Kunst Kunststoff Kunststoffrecycling, Berlin
Musee de design et d'arts appliques contemporains, Recycling/Design, Lausanne
Künstlerbund Heilbronn, Afrika im Blick
2002
Technik Museum, Wien
Visions of Arts and Craft in the 20 th., Danish Museum of dekorative Art, Kopenhagen
2001
“Fellissimo”, Design 21, New York
At Home with Plastics”, Geffrye-Museum, London
2000
“Design World 2000”, Museum of Art and Design, Helsinki (eigener Raum)
Jahrhundertausstellung, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin
No soap no Hope, Galerie Ca D'oro, Berlin / Rom
1998/99
“Bewußt einfach”, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein
( wandert weiter nach Sao Paulo, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires,
Caracas, Wellington, Melbourne, Sidney, Jerusalem, Daejon, Chiang Mai, Manila )
Kimilounge Herbstbar 99, Steirischer Herbst, Graz
1998
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Köln, Design mit Zukunft
Plastics + Design, Die neue Sammlung, München
1997
“Re(f)use”, Landesgewerbeamt/Design Center, Stuttgart (wandert weiter nach Den
Haag,
Barcelona, Lissabon, Porto, Athen, Paris, Kopenhagen)
Kid Size-Möbel und Objekte für Kinder, Vitra Design Museum
Design mit Zukunft, Focke Museum, Bremen
Kunststücke aus Kunststoff, Kunststgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen Berlin
1996
„ Design Exchange „ Toronto
Louisiana Museum of modern Art, Dänemark
Produkte, Fetische, Rituale, Übersee Museum Bremen
Re-Materialize, Royal College of Art, London, Aberdeen, Surrey
1995
“Maggi-Edition”, Nestlé-Haus, Frankfurt a.M. (wandert weiter nach Darmstadt, Essen,
Vevey)
Living tomorrow, Haus der Zukunft, Brüssel
Die Kunst und das Schöne Ding , Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen
1994
Designed in Germany, Design und Ökologie,Rat für Formgebung, Framkfurt
1993
Begegnung zwischen den Stühlen, Galerie D 19, Chemnitz

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SOZIALE(S) PLASTIK