DRESDEN.- This summer, the exhibitions at the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts), run by Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, is all about confrontation with tradition. The Kunstgewerbemuseum in Dresden was founded in 1876 to promote collaboration between artistic design and commercial production. The museum picks up on this idea in two exhibitions and bring it into the present day.

For “The False Flower. A Design Fairy Tale by Hermann August Weizenegger”, director Tulga Beyerle brought the Berlin product designer Hermann August Weizenegger to Dresden, where he engaged with Saxony's old tradition of making artificial flowers, developing a homage to the handicraft of a whole region.

From the 19th century, Sebnitz, a town on the Bohemian border, was a particularly notable European centre of silk flower production. Together with the German artificial flower association in Sebnitz, Weizenegger has developed two modern flower variants which have been turned into products in cooperation with 16 manufacturers. The products are based on the story of the flower maker Lore, who is said to have lived near Sebnitz. As so often with the works of Hermann August Weizenegger, it is never clear what is real about Lore's tale and what is invented.

Blossoms and flowers are not the only attraction: the designer has also invited porcelain and cloth producers, as well as various craftspeople and artists, to engage with the “False Flower”, including such imposing names as the Theresienthal crystal glass manufacturer, the fabric-weaver Curt Bauer, Welter Manufaktur für Wandunikate, Weissfee lace producers, and Meissen Couture®. The exhibition also features talented craftsman such as Stefan Heinz the chair-maker, Gunter Ludwig the parquet fitter, Robert Krebes the upholsterer or Gotthard Petrick the glass engineer. The two flowers thus now also embellish high-quality hand-crafted wall hangings, furniture, plates, glasses, jacquard weave fabrics and serviettes and tablecloths decorated with Plauen lace. “The False Flower” is an attempt to create a new synthesis of the arts.

This exhibition brings the Kunstgewerbemuseum closer to its aim of being a platform for design and production. It offers an insight into traditional crafts which often go back centuries.

The museum also announced that “Parts of a Unity. Stories from the Collection of the Kunstgewerbemuseum”, held in the Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, is to be extended until August 16, 2015.

The two exhibitions impressively combine both the history and the present-day activities of the museum and its collection.