COLOGNE.- What is ‘typically German?’ Is it the love of garden gnomes, homeliness and beer? Are the virtues of tidiness, punctuality and conscientiousness characteristic for a whole nation? The very core of German identity seems to be hard to put into words.

In his ‘typisch deutsch?’ exhibition, artist and designer Rolf Sachs condenses his personal reflections on those allegedly German attributes and stereotypes in an exciting selection of objects and installations. The exhibits are enveloped by a subtle network of associative connections, playing with concepts such as industriousness, cleanliness, homeliness and narrow-mindedness, and telling us about the multi-facetted aspects of German culture.

The son of a German father and a French mother, Swiss-born Rolf Sachs lives and works in London with his Iranian wife Maryam and their three children. From this multi-cultural background, Rolf Sachs has increasingly focused on his linguistic and cultural origins, which are also clearly visible in his artistic language. With the critical distance of a cosmopolitan, he is able to cast a fresh view on essential characteristics of German identity and, defying the cliché of the humourless German, he does so with intelligent and hard-hitting wit. Rolf Sachs’ first solo exhibition in a German museum invites the audience to discover their own ‘German virtues’ and, possibly, to discover new aspects about themselves.

The exhibition will be documented in a bi-lingual catalogue with contributions by internationally renowned design and art experts. The exhibition opening at the MAKK will mark the beginning of both the International Furniture Fair (imm cologne) and PASSAGEN. In this context, the museum will present an exciting special programme, including a panel discussion (in English) on ‘Typically German? Globalisation and National Aspects in Architecture and Design’, organised in cooperation with Baumeister and Abitare: 14 January 2013 at 7pm.