Dear Friends,
as much as we miss summer, we do love autumn. This season, to celebrate our collaboration with our friends at OODD Studios, we turn our eyes on the most autumnal of German cities, namely Leipzig.
Yours truly,
CLINQ
OF PEBBLES AND STONES is the result of an ongoing exchange between CLINQ and OODD Studios, born out of mutual appreciation and shared interests in craftmanship and technology, functionality and style, the organic and the articifial, nature and design.
A collaboration always represents a meeting point of different perspectives, expressed here in opposites that embrace and complement each other: sharp edges versus natural forms, hard versus soft, shiny versus muted. Organic and uneven silhouettes of accessories are folded in clean spring steel, while a range of accompanying T-shirts transform hair clips into brooches. It is a matter of water versus stone, with everything else only a question of time.
Collaborations in fashion are often an intentional affair – credibility versus reach. In this case, however, it’s based on friendship and mutual respect. OODD Studios is an interdisciplinary design cooperative founded in Leipzig in 2021 that explores the potential of contemporary craftsmanship in relation to the ongoing digitalization of society. Their various concept-based projects range from textiles and graphics to photography, fashion, interior design and installation, with an ongoing interest in the value and depth of what is created by hand and experience.
ON A RELATED NOTE: LEIPZIG
Autumn is the perfect time for reading, and Leipzig is the city of books, with the name of its renowned Arts Academy literally translating to Academy for Graphic and Book Arts. A good 20+ years ago, some of its graduates founded an independent arts magazine called Spector, that soon grew into a full-fledgded publishing power house.
Nowadays, Spector Books publish an average of one book per week, and yet, they are always astoundingly beautiful, well written, and well researched. Settled squarely in the intersection of art, theory, and design, Spector call their books a stage, ‘a site of encounter for productive exchange.’ Be that as it may, if you want to dive into the work of Hito Steyerl, Alexander Kluge, or some stunning photography of Berlin in the 1980s, look no further. Highly recommended for autumn readings.
No other city in former East Germany quite developed such a budding arts scene as did Leipzig, which is strongly related to its particular history. This was reflected in the style of the ‘Neue Leipziger Schule’ – the New Leipzig School – which marked a rediscovery of painting, integrating visual elements and codes of Communist propaganda. Its most famous proponent, Neo Rauch, another alumni of the Leipzig Arts Academy, gained international acclaim in the 1990s, putting Leipzig on the global arts map.
A final recommendation for the end: the legendary flea market Antikmarkt Alte Messe Leipzig, always on the first Sunday of the month.
