With an unusual and interdisciplinary exhibition, the Institute of Material Culture and the Institute of Biology and Environmental Sciences are making common cause - and drawing attention to a hidden treasure of the university.
People use plants and their flowers in many different ways: as a fragrance, as a spice, for decoration and, last but not least, as inspiration for fashion. The exhibition "Blüten(t)raum. An interdisciplinary look at florals" focusses on the latter. Staff from the Institute of Material Culture and the Institute of Biology and Environmental Sciences (IBU) have designed the exhibition together. It can be seen in the entrance area of the library on the Haarentor campus until September.
The exhibition shows objects from two collections: the Textile Everyday Culture Collection (STAK) and the Botanical Teaching Collection. "All the objects have a floral connection - in other words, to flowers and blossoms. The dresses have flower patterns, and various botanical models show flowers and their individual elements," explains Klara von Lindern, curator of the STAK. Many objects are also linked in terms of content: The travelling dress stands next to a suitcase, and the cocktail dress forms a duo with a gin bottle.
"Our aim is to draw more attention to the university's collections," says Dr Maria Will from IBU. "Students, researchers and external parties should find out how diverse they are and what opportunities they offer for teaching, research and presentation." The organisers can imagine that other university collections - there are currently 17 - will gradually become the subject of similar exhibitions in the library.
Visitors to the current "Blüten(t)raum" exhibition will not only find various objects and related information texts. For example, visitors can use a QR code to call up a music playlist full of flora-related songs and add further thematically appropriate pieces themselves. Will and von Lindern's team have also draped various giveaways in a flower box: while stocks last, there are flower seeds, postcards and a zine designed by Veronika Dawydow, which shows a very special flower dream and can also be used as a poster when unfolded.
