This is no place you ever knew me, triptych, 2025 – paper, porcelain, ceramics, ink

The three works installed in the house function as a triptych. They were created during and after the Paper Residency! at KunstOrt Lehnin.

In the first part, round porcelain forms emerge from the paper. The spherical mesh appears solid, but is actually textile and flexible. In my artistic practice, I use textile as a cultural code: it refers to the domestic, the feminine, to care work and invisibility – and at the same time forms a quiet moment of resistance against attribution and hierarchy.

In the second part, the motifs of the residency become more apparent. The ink and graphite drawings refer to traces of female bodies, especially the absence of hands and arms in the “Large Standing Figures.” Here, arms symbolize self-determination, independence, and protection, while fingerprints mark identity.

The third part consists of a group of drawings on “ceramicized” paper. The sketches and shadings do not form a clear image, but together with the spaces between them create a vague impression. They hint at a body—a body that is present, but without context and without clear identity.

As part of the Paper Residency 2025 at Kunstort Lehnin, Laura Matukonytė (Vilnius, Lithuania) is exploring the possibilities of paper in connection with fashion, graphic design, and sculpture. The exhibition presents new objects and installations in which fragility, structure, and familiar forms are removed and repositioned.

Justina Monceviciute (Lithuania) lives and works in Berlin. She first studied drawing in Vilnius and then at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin in the Textile & Surface Design program, focusing on experimental materials. Since 2019, she has been showing her work internationally, including at the Berlinische Galerien, COLLECT Somerset House London, and the Vilnius University Museum. Monceviciute teaches at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin, among other places, and is a scholarship holder of the Paper Art Residency 2025 at the Haus des Papiers.

Study 1–13, 2025 – FineArt papers under tension

Maja Behrmann used the Paper Residency in Berlin to explore her experience with installations with the medium of paper for the first time. For her, the material became not only a surface but a partner: it can support, hold, arch, retain memory – and with every movement generate its own tension.

Color and form are the two forces that define Behrmann’s work. For her, color is not a harmonious arrangement but a system of energies. She lets colors collide deliberately, allowing friction to emerge, and observes how this friction creates warmth and movement. Behrmann possesses a deep, almost instinctive understanding of the forces that color can release in space. Her installations develop a distinctive presence from this: not loud, but clearly perceptible.

Form, in turn, is understood by the artist as a spatial being. In earlier works, she created oversized structures – machine-like constructions, playfully reimagined everyday objects, or interlocking gears – both absurd and soft. She shaped organic bodies that placed themselves naturally into space. Her objects appear familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, like enlarged toys or abstract items whose function one can guess but no longer name.

During the Residency, Behrmann approached the material of paper with this same sensitivity. She explored how forms can emerge that do not imitate wood or other materials, but grow from the paper itself. The results are attempts, studies, exploratory gestures – convincing precisely in their openness and vulnerability. The paper responds to the artist: it stretches, warps, resists small expectations. It can be shaped, and yet it suddenly breaks away. It is in these deviations that liveliness emerges.

For the first time, an artist has allowed us to share a glimpse into the working processes of her studio. Here we present a variety of experimental moments – “work in progress” objects that visitors will see only here and never again publicly. This excites us deeply.

Behrmann’s color worlds remain unmistakable. They appear delicate, even feminine, and at the same time unfold an unpredictable multiplicity. The artist translates her perception of the world into forces of color and spatial bodies – precise, clear, and guided by an intuitive certainty that gives her work both depth and lightness.

Maja Behrmann (born 1994 in Frankfurt am Main) lives and works in Leipzig. She studied Graphic Design and Book Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig and completed her Meisterschülerin studies at the Art Academy Halle. She has participated in numerous international exhibitions, including at the AKI Gallery in Taipei, Taiwan, the University Gallery of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria, the Gallery of the City of Backnang, the Max Pechstein Museum in Zwickau, the Kunsthalle Charlottenburg in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Kunstquartier Bethanien in Berlin. She is a fellow of the 2025 Paper Art Residency at the Museum Haus des Papiers

Partition 115, 2018 – Photo object, unique piece

If you strip photography of all its content, what remains? Christiane Feser explored this question and found that what remains is light, shadow, and the material of paper. From this, she created her playing field. Starting with digital image processing, she has been increasingly using “real” tools since 2008. She photographs, then folds and cuts the images, scratches, stabs, adds threads and fibers to the surfaces, and rearranges everything—only to capture it once again through the lens of the camera. Feser contrasts the photographic vision of the camera, a reality that “once was,” with human vision. The two- and three-dimensional are interwoven until the photograph is transformed into a “photo object.”

The ongoing series Partitions began with folds in individual sheets of paper. Over a period of months, Feser used thousands of folded A4 sheets to form ever-changing modules, which she then captured on camera and converted back into three-dimensional objects. In this way, she deepened her analytical knowledge of material, light, and shadow until she was ready to develop her highly original partitions. Christiane Feser's large-format work Partition 115 in the entrance area thrives on her masterful command of paper as a material, which pours into the room like a waterfall of paper strips.

Christiane Feser (born 1977 in Würzburg, Germany) studied at the Offenbach University of Art and Design. Her works have been shown in exhibitions worldwide, including at the Frankfurter Kunstverein; the Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Kunstmuseum Bochum; the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Her works are in the collections of the Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Minneapolis Institute of Art; the Mönchehaus Museum, Goslar; the ZKM Karlsruhe; and the Klein Collection. Christiane Feser is the first scholarship recipient of the Paper Residency! at the Haus des Papiers.

Blind / roof / coffee time, 2025 – Paper, coffee filters, found objects

During her four-week residency at Kunstort Lehnin, Laura Matukonytė devoted herself entirely to the material of paper. She works with precision, structure, and great patience – approaching materials not through tools, but through touch. For her, form emerges through dialogue: through repetition, through attentive observation, and through a physical sensitivity to surfaces and their reactions.

Matukonytė does not shape according to a fixed plan, but in response to encounters. She works with found materials from the surroundings – an old metal roof sheet, broken wooden blinds, tables, steps, coffee filters from the local café. Many of her works begin by placing wet paper onto these objects, letting it dry, and observing how it holds, stretches, or collapses. Water and time become co-creators in the process.

In Blind, a damaged wooden blind transforms into a new paper surface, colored with coffee. Its former function remains visible as a trace – a quiet reference to everyday rituals and shifting light.

In roof, Matukonytė reinterprets the form of a roof: not as a protective structure of wood or metal, but as a paper body that finds its shape through drying and material tension alone.

In coffee time, she works with used coffee filters. The objects preserve marks of their previous function, carrying gradients, grains, and edges, and reminding us how closely material, ritual, and memory are intertwined.

Laura Matukonytė works with great discipline and a remarkable calmness. She takes long journeys in stride, manages everything herself – and meets the process with unforced joy. Her works evolve slowly, through attention and through a deep appreciation of the material. They reveal paper as something fragile and autonomous at once: a substance that determines for itself how far it can be shaped.

Laura Matukonyté (born 1984, Lithuania) first studied Fashion Design at the Vilnius Academy of Arts before turning to sculpture. Since 2023 she has exhibited her work internationally, including at the National Gallery of Art Vilnius, the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, Camberwell Space Gallery, UAL London, the Meno Parkas Gallery, and Kunstort Lehnin. She is a fellow of the 2025 Paper Art Residency at the Museum Haus des Papiers.

Patchwork 43, 2023 – Cardboard, paper on cardboard

Patchwork 44, 2023 – Cardboard, paper on cardboard

Since childhood, the artist and designer has been influenced by the theme of “textiles,” which was very present in his everyday life at home. Even as a teenager, he devoured fashion magazines and explored fabrics, yarns, and colors. During this time, he developed his paper collages, in which he deliberately combined images from magazines and daily newspapers to create new motifs. Layered and intertwined, Bora's works form structures made of paper that, at second glance, seem surprisingly familiar.

The conceptual connecting element of his works is the strict selection of the templates he uses: only paper material that has entered his household through purchases or postal deliveries is deconstructed and redesigned.

Cem Bora (*1965 Istanbul, Turkey) lives and works in Berlin. After training at the Fashion Institute of the Lette Verein Berlin, he worked for style agencies in Paris and Amsterdam. In the meantime, he founded his own fashion label. Since 2005, Bora has been exhibiting his paper works in exhibitions in Berlin, Basel, Paris, and Luxembourg, among other places. He is represented in the Modebild-Lipperheidesche Kostümbibliothek collection at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Inherited Desire, 2018 – Lithograph on BFK Rives

Since the mid-2000s, Jorinde Voigt has developed her own graphic system for translating experiences, thoughts, and sensory impressions based on philosophical writings and communication patterns in music. Voigt translates the objects of her investigation into her own grammar, which appears as precisely drawn line and writing systems, sometimes as dashed patches of color, colored collages, or gold leaf inlays.

The Sum of All Best Practices VI, 2021 –

graphite on paper, collage on mirrored glass with artist’s frame**

Jorinde Voigt’s works appear to be in constant motion. Lines grow, collide, overlap, and open new spaces. Her drawings arise from an inward concentration: each line is the trace of a thought, a comparison, an act of perception. They are notations of processes rather than representations of things.

In the series The Sum of All Best Practices, Voigt turns her attention to the forms of nature. The starting point is leaves she found on her way to the studio in Berlin during autumn 2021. Each leaf carries its own past: growth, adaptation, survival. Voigt is interested in this biographical memory of form. She transfers the contour in graphite onto paper and then cuts it out with a scalpel—an act that is both analysis and operation. The cut becomes a visible movement of thought.

The cut-out shapes are condensed into a collage. They overlap, cast shadows, and open intervals. In this topography, structure, chance, and light merge; from the individual leaves, a new line emerges—a complex spatial system of relationships.

The mirrored glass behind the collage connects inside and outside. Viewers become part of the work, entering into relation with it. The piece resists a fixed perspective: it remains open, shifting, in motion.

Voigt’s work combines analytical precision with a pressing intensity. Her lines radiate clarity and at the same time an inner energy that rarely comes to rest. In her collages, drawing becomes a sculptural process without mass—a form of thinking that manifests itself in space.

Jorinde Voigt’s works are held in numerous international collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Kunsthaus Zürich; The Morgan Library & Museum, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich; and the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin. Her work is exhibited worldwide and accompanied by extensive publications.

Geometry of coexistence 1- 3, 2025 – Hahnemühle paper and inkjet print

During her Paper Residency in Berlin, Anna Bochkova developed a series in which she worked spatially with paper for the first time. The starting point is her connection with architecture – especially the tensions between global building concepts and local living realities, something she repeatedly encountered throughout her life 

Bochkova asks how architecture might be if it were guided not by rigid grids, but by the patterns of nature: wave lines, plant structures, climatic conditions, the movements of landscapes. For her, building is something alive – something that adapts to places rather than reshaping them.

Using double-sided printed papers whose surfaces are derived from enlarged structures of bureaucratic documents, she constructs small models. Some forms recall amorphous bodies, others shifted building blocks or fragments of a house. They appear playful and serious at the same time, as if speaking of a possible future in which a space means not only shelter but also relationship – to surroundings, to nature, to people.

The objects reveal patterns, ornaments, and lines that Bochkova explores as a personal architectural language. For her, ornament is not decoration but a proposal: an idea of how community might be shaped. Rather than continuing the dogmas of modernism, she searches for alternatives – for an architecture that thinks more softly, more openly, and remains deeply rooted in local context.

The paper works shown here are early studies and questions. They unsettle and invite us to imagine how spaces might grow if they were not planned from above, but developed from within.

Anna Bochkova (born 1995 in Rostov-on-Don, Russia) lives and works in Hamburg. She studied Stage Design at the Moscow Art Theatre, followed by Textual Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and Fine Arts and Sculpture at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg. Since 2017 she has exhibited internationally, including at the Belvedere Museum Vienna, Kunstquartier Bethanien Berlin, Clemens Sels Museum Neuss, Kunsthaus Wien, and Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof.

Overlay 1, 2025 – layered drawing with liquid charcoals, layered paper

Drawing is a starting point in her work, followed by processes of layering and densifying. Her approach remains both translucent and light; it pushes into the space, shapes it, and takes it in.

In Overlay, created during her residency in Berlin in the summer of 2025, Monika Grzymala transfers her artistic approach onto paper for the first time. She is best known for large-scale installations made of black adhesive tape and plastic bands – hard lines that weave through space and cut through it at the same time, both dramatic and connective. During her residency in the artist studio of the Museum Haus des Papiers, she further develops this visual language and shifts her sculptural drawing into a new, materially intensive field.

On several individually worked sheets of handmade paper, she applies highly water-saturated paintings that emerge from strongly physical, body-driven movement. During the drying process, the sheets arch and buckle, revealing the extent of their oversaturation with water. The watercolors used consist of a range of black tones – burnt earths, charred woods, and the carbon of various stone fruit pits. Before applying the paint, Grzymala arranges the papers in a refined layered setup: On an area of about 2.5 × 1.5 meters, sheets are partially covered. During the painting process, lines overlap, flow into one another, and leave unexpected white spaces creating a calmness amongst a storm of paint.

The strength of this work lies in its carefully conceived spatial composition: every shift and every relationship between the sheets is deliberately constructed. The painted papers float freely in the room, suspended in delicate offsets and forming an architecture of layers, displacements, and openings. Grzymala opens the space without dominating it; she creates tension without disrupting it. What becomes visible here is new within her practice – and at the same time consistent: an expansion of her spatial drawing. The installation demonstrates a way of working with paper in space that is exceptional in its clarity and intensity.

The residency program once again shows how independent and forward-looking artistic positions can emerge here.

Monika Grzymala (born 1970 in Zabrze, Poland) lives and works in Berlin. She completed training in stone sculpture in Kaiserslautern and studied Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, Kassel, and Hamburg. Her works have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art New York, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, Hamburger Kunsthalle, and the Albertina in Vienna. She has taught at the Braunschweig University of Art and the University of Applied Arts Vienna. She is a fellow of the 2025 Paper Art Residency at the Museum Haus des Papiers.

Untitled, 2025 – Red colored pencil on Hahnemühle Rice Paper, cut, mounted on cardboard, edition of 40 (available for purchase from us)

Hinsberg is one of the most prominent German artists who have shaped the concept of so-called “spatial drawing” and the medium of paper cutting. Since the 1990s, her work has focused on drawing and various processes of its deconstruction. She draws and transforms the hand-drawn lines by cutting and drilling into the paper surfaces. Her works range from fine paper cut-out grids to expansive, floating paper strips to interiors covered with colored paper. All of them are impressive examples of how the medium of drawing has long since outgrown the narrow definition of lines on paper.

The work shown here, with its delicate form, illustrates this transformation from drawing to relief to three-dimensional object. The “usual” medium, paper, becomes a sign, a line, and yet also a highlighted body that seems to float, casting its shadow delicately onto the background. The material comes to the fore.

Katharina Hinsberg (born 1967 in Karlsruhe, Germany) lives and works in Saarbrücken. She studied fine arts in Munich, Dresden, and Bordeaux. She has been working as an artist since 1997, initially managing projects and lighting installations, later as a lecturer at the University of the Arts Bremen, and since 2011 at the Saar College of Fine Arts. Her works have been exhibited internationally since 1992, including at the Kunsthalle Mannheim, the Dresden State Art Collection, the Kunstsammlung NRW (K20 Düsseldorf), the Museum des ifa, and the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart.

What weighs time? Who measures time? When is time?, 2025 – sewn from Japanese paper, black sand

Inside and outside, insight and transparency, firm and soft. Sheila Furlan's works constantly engage in a dialogue between space, surface, transparency, and impenetrability. Her delicate spaces, which she creates primarily from translucent organza fabric and precise seams, make the otherwise invisible spaces between visible.

In the five-part paper work exhibited here, the artist explores how people attempt to understand and control time. At the same time, the unfinished hourglass refers to the failure of the measurement experiment. The hourglass half, interrupted after one hour, stands as a silent commentary on the intangible, subjective, and mostly fleeting feeling of time passing. The title thus takes up the core question of the work and addresses the viewer directly.

Sheila Furlan (born 1974 in Rome, Italy) lives and works in Munich. After training in flamenco dance in Germany and Spain, she turned to the visual arts in 1997 and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. Since 2000, she has exhibited her work in various institutions, including the Museum Villa Rot (Burgrieden), the Museum Penzberg, the Kunsthalle Rosenheim, and the Kunstquartier Wien.

TOTEM, 2025 – Urn objects, pulp from charcoal drawings and studies of cycles

MEN I TRUST, sixteen days of recording water, becoming corpus, coming in swarms

Charcoal, ash, Ruhr water, vegetable objects, various Hahnemühle papers, untreated lime wood, charred (burnt) ash wood. Animal ash

The two urn objects from the “TOTEM” series are the latest works by Schwerte-based artist Jessica Maria Toliver and are being shown for the first time at the Museum Haus

des Papiers Berlin.

They mark a significant development in her artistic exploration of paper as a material and tie in with the content of the self-portraits “Innere Sicherheit” (Internal Security), “abends wenn ich schlafen geh`” (in the evening when I go to sleep) and the multi-part cycle “sixteen days of recording water.”

In her new urn objects, the artist condenses the symbiotic and multi-layered relationship between humans and animals in a radically transformative way by tearing up studies, sketches, and entire groups of works in a performative act, burning them, and processing them into pulp. She then molds this pulp around a specially designed wooden model that

determines the final shape of the urn.

The dried pulp cap serves as a carrier for the original animal ashes applied in the final production step, which give the urn objects their color and structure. The two objects combine symbolism, metaphor, mystical and spiritual levels.

On the one hand, they raise questions about finitude and the breaking of taboos, and on the other hand, they deal with artists' estates and personal development in an aesthetic-pragmatic way. On the one hand, they raise questions about finitude and breaking taboos, and on the other hand, they deal with artists' estates and personal development in an aesthetic and pragmatic way. In terms of form and functionality, the urn objects correspond to commercially available models. (Text: Jessica Maria Toliver)

Jessica Maria Toliver (born 1976 in Coburg, Germany). She lives and works in Schwerte, North Rhine-Westphalia. After working as a set designer's assistant in Dortmund and Berlin, she decided to pursue a career in fine arts in 2008 and has been working with paper ever since.

This exhibition presents the results of two open calls from this year. One is from a collaboration with the Open Press Project

Rising Prints

Winners:

Gold: Julie Belle Bishop

Silver: Ellen van Vollenhoven

Bronze: Rosan Catteuw

Other participants:

Sarah Adomßent, Marz Aglipay, Isabel Allaert, Roberta Bergmann & Annette Szendera, Julie Belle Bishop, Tania Chou, Jo @ Flitch Creative, Eva Fis, Antje Fischer, Ulla Franke, Jennifer Garthwright, 3 gatospress (Alejandra and Xavier), Sabine Hilscher, Julia Kaergel, Claudia Kammacher, Jayati Kaushik, Rosemarie Knaust, Eleanor Keith, Elisabeth Kirschbaum, Hilke Kurzke, Isabelle Lin (echo), Friedrich Mayer, Sadaf Mirza, Emmy Pellico, Nicole Pettigrew, Annette Rosensträter, David Wassermann, Marie-Louise Wasiela, Lee Yenjen, Carla Zockoll

Spitteleck Pushed the Sky Away (View from the Fifth Floor, Thinking about Bernd and Hilla Becher), 2025 – Paper

Elisabetta Bonucelli (*Turin, Italy) has lived and worked in Milan since 2004. After studying design and making numerous trips to Japan, she discovered origami and has since devoted herself to free paper-based art. She founded unokostudio in 2014. Her works have been created for Benetton, Feltrinelli, Versace, Cartier, among others, and have been featured at the Lucca Biennale and international design and origami exhibitions.

Ohne Titel, 2025 – Papier

Geometry, light, and shadow form meditative compositions, often based on varying hexagonal structures. Her minimalist installations have the effect of places of power. She also offers custom commissions in various sizes, colors, and formats. The result is tranquil spaces that invite viewers to linger and find inner peace.

She comes from Eching and, after many years in project management, has been creating three-dimensional works from precisely and gently processed paper since 2022.

Releaf Paper

Shopping bag – Recycled city leaves

Releaf Paper is a young, innovative company that transforms green waste into valuable raw materials for the paper and packaging industry. By combining scientific and entrepreneurial enthusiasm, they are changing people's perceptions of the responsible use of resources for paper production.

The company was founded in Ukraine in 2021 through the collaboration of a talented scientist and a successful entrepreneur.

Releaf Paper actively uses contract factories in Ukraine and the EU to produce paper and packaging using Releaf technology. What began as a research project by a 16-year-old student has grown into an international, dynamic start-up company with offices in Paris and Kyiv and global ambitions within five years.

System 180

The Berlin-based company System 180 develops spatial concepts with a wide range of uses that promote creative thinking and creative processes. It attaches great importance to local development and production with a view to timeless design, combinability, and a special focus on recyclability.

In our exhibition, we present two of the company's research projects on the topic of sustainability:

LignoLight, May 1, 2023–November 30, 2026 – Use of lignin for the development of lightweight furniture

Project participants: Bingen University of Applied Sciences, Berlin Weissensee School of Art, Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research WKI, TECNARO GmbH, CompriseTec GmbH, System 180 GmbH, Lignopure GmbH, Trippen A. Spieth M. Oehler GmbH

The LignoLight project focuses on the use of lignin for the development of new materials. The aim is to explore the possible uses of lignin for modular lightweight furniture. An essential aspect of the project is recycling, which includes both the reuse of complete assemblies (design for cyclability) and the separation and processing of materials by type (design for disassembly). In addition, concepts for take-back and possible end-of-life scenarios are being developed.

Alongside cellulose, lignin is the second main component of wood, accounting for around 20–30% of its composition. Lignin consists of solid biopolymers and is a key component of wood. It is not water-soluble and is therefore more difficult to break down biologically than other substances. Lignin forms important structural materials in the supporting tissue of most plants. It forms around and inside the cell walls and gives them strength.

Lignin, which has previously been regarded as a waste product, is obtained from the cell wall material of lignified plants, lignocellulose. This is mainly used in paper production as a raw material source for cellulose and hemicellulose.

(Text by Francesco Coccia, System 180)

Funded by: Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection as part of the Lightweight Construction Technology Transfer Program (TTP LB)

ReSpan, June 1, 2021–December 31, 2024 – Recycling of wood-based materials

Project participants: Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research AIP, Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, PreZero Stiftung & Co. KG, Pfeifer Holz Lauterbach GmbH, System 180 GmbH

The ReSpan project aims to develop a recycling process for wood-based materials, in particular MDF, OSB, flat-pressed boards, and pallet blocks. The aim is to reuse not only parts of the materials, but as many components as possible. To achieve this, a recycling formulation must be found that is chemically adapted to the respective board material and is capable of dissolving the thermosetting adhesive in the materials without damaging the wood chips and/or fibers.

Medium density fiberboard (MDF) is a wood-based material made from finely defibrated, mainly bark-free softwood that is uniform in both the longitudinal and transverse directions. The edges are smooth and firm and can be profiled without special edging.

Oriented Strand Board (OSB) is a wood-based material made from long, thin, aligned chips (strands). It was invented by Armin Elmendorf in 1963.

Flat-pressed board, represents the largest and best-known subgroup of chipboard. Flat-pressed board is a wood-based material consisting of small chips of varying sizes that are glued together and pressed into multi-layer boards, usually in three to five layers. The outer layers almost always consist of finer chip material, especially if they are subsequently coated for decorative purposes. (Text by Francesco Coccia, System 180)

Funded by: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture in the Charter for Wood 2.0 program

Loop Biotech

Loop Biotech is a Dutch company that cultivates funeral products from local mushrooms: 100% natural, biodegradable, soil-improving, and designed to become one with nature.

Here we show a material sample from the mushroom-based raw material that is processed. This enables, for the first time, a nature-enriching burial that brings together traditions and forward-looking, nature-promoting material use.

Technical University of Munich Chair of Materials Research Biopolymers Straubing – Alexander Helmbrecht, Felicitas von Usslar, Weixuan Wang, Prof. Cordt Zollfrank

Balsa wood at the end of delignification

Beech wood, untreated cross-sections

Various wood samples in different stages of surface delignification

Dried cellulose foam – consisting of bacterial cellulose

Cottonid sample

The “From Wood to Paper” project by the Chair of Biogenic Polymers at the Technical University of Munich shows the transformation of wood into cellulose and then into paper.

Starting materials such as balsa and beech wood are chemically delignified, removing the lignin and preserving the cellulose structure. Various stages of delignification are documented, from solid wood to cellulose fibers to paper variants. Innovative materials such as bacterial cellulose foam and cottonid are also presented. Microscopic images illustrate the structural changes during the process. The project highlights the conversion of wood into sustainable paper and cellulose products.

LaNaSys – Development of a material- and energy-efficient timber construction system using hardwood and softwood

The LaNaSys project aims to contribute to the material-efficient and sustainable use of wood, a local raw material, in modern timber construction and focuses on the further development of cross-laminated timber components. Until now, these components have been made almost exclusively from softwood, a resource that is becoming increasingly scarce. For this reason, lower-quality hardwoods, beetle-damaged wood, and veneer remnants are used for the inner layers. Due to a dissolved layer, there are cavities in the construction that pose special fire protection requirements.

To protect the load-bearing structure, a fire protection layer of modified cottonid is glued in place. Cottonid, also known as vulcanized fiber, is one of the oldest known bioplastics.

To produce a Cottonid sheet, several sheets of paper are soaked in a catalyst bath at a specific temperature for a specific period of time. The catalyst etches the surface of the paper, causing only a small amount of the natural cellulose to dissolve and repolymerize, which creates a bond between the individual fibers and between several layers of paper. After the reaction, the chemical residues are carefully washed out and the Cottonid can be pressed, dried, and shaped. Cottonid can be easily cut, milled, punched, turned, bent, planed, glued, and dyed. The reuse of the catalyst and the use of cellulose as a raw material make Cottonid a sustainable bioplastic.

In order for Cottonid to be used as a fire protection covering, expanded graphite is added to the paper base material in a specific concentration. The expanded graphite reacts when exposed to heat and forms a foam-like structure. This foam-like structure is created by the flake structure of the graphite and the release of gas, which pushes the flakes apart. The underlying effect is called intumescence. An insulating layer forms, which protects the components behind it from heat and flames and can close cavities. In addition, this oxidizing surface consumes oxygen, so that the surrounding air becomes almost inert and can serve as an extinguishing agent. Oxidation does not produce any further flames and the heat is removed from the environment. Ideally, the flames in a closed room could be smothered after the oxygen has been consumed or the fire load has been burned. The damage caused by water after extinguishing is sometimes considerable and significantly increases the cost of renovation. The LaNaSys ceiling element could offer an alternative form of fire protection here. In the ideal case, no extinguishing work would be necessary. The load-bearing components are protected by the Cottonid layer, and the fire protection could be easily renewed by removing the swollen Cottonid layer and gluing on a new one. (Text: Alexander Helmbrecht)

Dr. Cordt Zollfrank heads the Chair of Biogenic Polymers at the Technical University of Munich on the Straubing campus. Alexander Helmbrecht works as a research assistant and doctoral candidate at the Chair of Biogenic Polymers at the Technical University of Munich under the supervision of Prof. Cordt Zollfrank. He previously studied for his bachelor's and master's degrees in “Renewable Raw Materials” at the Technical University of Munich on the Straubing campus. He joined the Chair of Biogenic Polymers on October 1, 2021. Felicitas von Usslar works as a research assistant and doctoral candidate at the Chair of Biogenic Polymers at the Technical University of Munich under the supervision of Prof. Cordt Zollfrank.

Eva Bullermann

Petri dish 1 – Carboxymethylcellulose, glycerin

Petri dish 2 – Foam made from

carboxymethylcellulose and microcrystalline cellulose

Petri dish 3 – Carboxymethylcellulose, glycerin – dried on various substrates

Vial 1 – Eggshell membrane

Vial 2 – Luffa sponge gourd

Vial 3 – Skin between layers of spring onion

Vial 4 – Layer of spring onion

Air cushion made of carboxymethylcellulose, glycerin bonded with wheat paste

Framed:

Carboxymethylcellulose, glycerin – pattern generated with Grasshopper software showing the formation of shape through water and air in plants

Carboxymethylcellulose, glycerin, air-filled chamber glued with wheat paste – sample from highly concentrated gels

Carboxymethylcellulose, glycerin, onion cell pattern

3D print from PLA (polylactide) – sample

In her master's thesis on “Designing with Cellulose, Air, and Water,” Bullermann explores the potential uses of the stable, biodegradable structures of cellulose fibers. Eva Bullermann attempts to create material-saving complex structures based on nature's example, incorporating air and water as materials in the design process. The samples on display show models made from the cellulose derivative carboxymethylcellulose, which is used as a thickening agent in the food industry. Derived from the raw material cellulose, it can be mixed with water to form a viscous gel, which can then be poured into molds, foamed, and dried.

Eva Bullermann (born in 1993 in the Bavarian Forest) is a textile and surface designer whose work takes an artistic approach to the formation of shape in biological material and the design of material. Most recently, she worked as a project assistant and designer for Matters of Activity in the CollActive Materials project. The project tested speculative design as a method of science communication in the form of workshops.

Alexandra Fruhstorfer

Alexandra Fruhstorfer lives and works in Vienna. She works as a transdisciplinary designer and artistic researcher. She uses speculative, performative, and co-creative design to question political and cultural models in technological and ecological change.

The Secret Life of …., 2023

Small and light, they float on mountain peaks and sink to the bottom of the oceans. Just by wearing polyester sweaters, we lose thousands of tiny textile fibers every day without even noticing. They collect in the dust flakes in the corners of our bedrooms or get into our nostrils and even our cells.

More than 65% of global textile production consists of petroleum, which is why plastic microfibers from textiles are ubiquitous. And this is despite the disturbing findings from the latest research: once they enter our bodies, petroleum-based fibers can contribute to all kinds of serious illnesses.

The interactive installation “The Secret Life of ...” makes the invisible visible. The digital reflection simulates the amount of plastic microfibers that we release into the environment simply by walking around in synthetic clothing. A participatory wall installation invites visitors to leave a personal microfiber sample. The growing diagram shows the material and emotional composition of the garments present in the room. (Text: Alexandra Fruhstorfer)

Supported by: INTRA program, University of Applied Arts, Federal Ministry of the Republic of Austria (BMKOES), Cultural Forum Milan, Culture Moves Europe (European Union), Free University of Bolzano.

Her internationally exhibited works have received numerous awards. She studied industrial design, has been active in artistic research since 2020, and is co-founder of the collective DTAFA.

Anna Handick

Gelege, 2010 – Onion paper

Handick's work is based on her fascination with nature and her concern for its preservation and restoration. In particular, she examines survival strategies and adaptations, dependencies and symbioses, which she would like to reintroduce into society. In her art, she primarily uses natural materials, which she examines for their possible uses and limitations, thus developing environmentally friendly artistic positions.

In the work exhibited here, Anna Handick uses onion skins as an alternative raw material to make her delicate paper balls.

Anna Handick was born in Nuremberg in 1985. She currently lives and works in Nicaragua. She studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg under Claus Bury. Her works have been shown in numerous solo exhibitions in Germany, Switzerland, and Nicaragua. She has received various grants, including the Debutant Grant from the Bavarian State Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts and the Young Art Award from Artforum Ute Barth. Her works are part of the collection of the Fundación Ortíz Gurdián Museum in Leon, Nicaragua, and the Cultural Foundation of Sparkasse Nuremberg. In 2020, she founded the Abacaxi Artspace project.

Nicholas Plunkett

Fecal Matters, 2019 - Cellulose, pectin, natural dyes

Lobke Beckfeld, Elisabetta Goltermann, Nicholas Plunkett, Melissa Krame

Can we wear recycled toilet paper as clothing or even use it as tableware? Where do our reservations about this recycled material come from, and can they be overcome? Nicholas Plunkett, Elisabetta Goltermann, Melissa Kramer, and Lobke Beckfeld addressed these questions in the greenlab research laboratory at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin.

The overarching research theme of the greenlab focuses on the circular economy. The circular economy model contrasts the linear recycling model with the fundamental idea of cyclical reuse: non-biodegradable materials should be kept in the production and recycling cycle, while biodegradable materials are returned to nature and serve as nutrients.

In their design project Fecal Matters, Nicholas Plunkett, Elisabetta Goltermann, Melissa Kramer, and Lobke Beckfeld investigated the design potential and possible applications of cellulose recovered from toilet paper in wastewater. Around 83 million rolls of toilet paper are produced worldwide every day, requiring the felling of approximately 27,000 trees for international consumption. The project explores experimental and practical ways of converting cellulose into another valuable material.

The greenlab laboratory of the design departments at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin connects practice-oriented research projects and industry with the aim of jointly developing innovative concepts for sustainable and environmentally friendly products and services.

Ecru Medusa, 2025 – Plant Roots

Zena Holloway is a bio-designer and founder of Rootfull. She has been working as an underwater photographer and director for over 25 years, publishing in publications such as National Geographic, GQ, and The Sunday Times, and developing global campaigns for clients such as Nike, Pepsi, Speedo, Sony, and Greenpeace.

Through her work, she has witnessed firsthand the effects of environmental damage on our oceans, from coral bleaching to plastic pollution. This sparked her curiosity about materials science, which led to research in the field of bio-design. She built a fungarium in her basement to experiment with mycelium, and a year later, she came across the complex root system of a willow tree in her local river:

What if we could guide plant roots as they grow to form beautiful, ethical, and responsible materials?

This idea became the basis for Rootfull.

Since 2018, Holloway has been organically producing grass root materials and using her background to create pieces that reflect the shapes and textures of marine life.

Kitsune Lady, 2021 – Papier-mâché

Leiko Ikemura is one of the most important contemporary artists. Her paintings and objects revolve around themes of transformation and the fusion of humans and nature. The hybrid creatures and mythical beings are always depicted as shadowy figures, frozen in a state of becoming. The outstanding feature here is Ikemura's ability to fuse two very different poles—European and Far Eastern culture. Her tranquil landscapes and mostly female hybrid beings are often an expression of indeterminacy and the depths of human nature. Ikemura's sculptures are usually made of bronze and terracotta or glass.

For Haus des Papiers, she has now created her very first three-dimensional paper work. To this end, she added two new pieces in bright white papier-mâché to one of her best-known series of resting heads. The unpolished white surface with delicately modeled facial features quietly references the inspiration behind the work—the mythological creature Kitsune, an ice fox that takes the form of a beautiful young woman. The presence of her dreamlike works is always breathtaking. Now a new component has been added: physical lightness. This is particularly evident in the object Kitsune Lady—a fragile form, a whisper of paper. Time seems to stand still. Everything comes to rest. Breath fills us, like life.

Leiko Ikemura (born 1951 in Tsu, Japan) studied literature and later painting in Seville. She has received numerous awards, including the August Macke Prize in 2009 and the German Critics' Prize for Fine Arts in 2001. From 1990 to 2015, she taught at the Berlin University of the Arts. Worldwide exhibitions include: Kunsthalle Karlsruhe; Kunstmuseum Basel; MCBA Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne; Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Cologne; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Nevada Museum of Art, Reno; Weserburg – Museum für Moderne Kunst, Bremen, among others. Her works are in the collections of the Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris; Kunstmuseen Basel, Bern, and Zurich; Kunsthalle Nürnberg; Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, among others.

Radical art 2024-2025 – different types of vegetables

Sabine Handschuck cuts fast-growing roots such as carrots or radishes into thin slices, waters and rolls them, and assembles them into a sheet of paper without adding any binding agents. She draws inspiration from the natural material and enhances the porosity created by drying, combining shapes or collaging different parts of plants.

Radishes are transformed into feather-light sheets reminiscent of tissue paper. Parsnips captivate with their holey brittleness. Paper made from carrots feels similar to parchment paper. Each paper has its own smell, produces different sounds such as rustling or crackling when moved, each has a characteristic signature, and each still reveals its plant structure.

The papers change over time, making transience visible. In some pieces, small breaks gradually appear, determining the character of the artworks. Waves and folds in the more delicate works reveal a delicate vulnerability.

Sabine Handschuck (*1955 Ruhr area) studied social and theater education, earned a doctorate in intercultural education, worked at the Theater der Jugend in Munich and in the Munich administration, and is co-founder of an institute for intercultural quality development. In 2011, she joined the “Meisterklasse” painting group, led by painter Hans Mayrhofer. Since 2019, she has been exhibiting her works in various Munich galleries.