MADE IN - Platform for Contemporary Crafts & Design

Can dyes for textiles be developed from algae? Could lampshades be made from rushes? These were the kinds of questions that preoccupied the people brought together by the MADE IN platform. It combined cultural heritage, design studio, research laboratory and workshop with the aim of making a sustainable circular economy the norm in society.

Craftspeople, designers and researchers explored the limits of different materials and their processing together. They experimented with functionality and aesthetics, explored possibilities and developed new ways of designing. Co-financed by the European Union, a sustainable transfer of knowledge between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary production was initiated – and realised in concrete collaborations.

The exhibition at the Siebenschlehener Pochwerk showed the results of this cross-border collaboration, which began in 2023 in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal and Germany – and has continued to develop ever since.

The project was supported by Makers, Business & Arts, a main project of the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025, in collaboration with the Slovenian Cultural Information Centre Berlin – SKICA Berlin and the Slovenian Tourist Board.