Positions on Freedom. Design and its Boundaries, by the thing Fellowship, is an interdisciplinary exhibition and publication developed as part of World Design Capital Frankfurt RheinMain 2026 and its theme Design for Democracy. Atmospheres for a Better Life. Hosted at the Museum for Applied Arts in Frankfurt, the project brings together (1) commissioned works by invited fellows, (2) an international Open Call, and (3) a collaboration with the museum to explore freedom as a plural, contested, and context-dependent concept. Initiated and artistically directed by Anton Rahlwes, the fellowship is realised in partnership with USM and Fondation USM and is closely connected to the thing Magazine.
The exhibition runs from 14 May to 28 June 2026, with an opening on 13 May 2026.
Adress: Museum Angewandte Kunst, Schaumainkai 17, 60549 Frankfurt am Main
Freedom: A Shared Question, Diverse Positions
Freedom is one of the most widely used, and most contested, concepts of our time. It is a fundamental element in constitutions, political struggles, cultural debates, and personal narratives. Yet despite its centrality, freedom resists a single, stable definition. Across history and cultures, freedom has been understood not as one universal condition, but as a plural and relational concept, shaped by context, power, and lived experience.
Historically, Western traditions have framed freedom primarily as an individual right: political participation in antiquity, moral autonomy in Christian philosophy, rational self-determination during the Enlightenment, and legal protection within modern democratic states. These ideas continue to inform contemporary understandings of freedom, particularly in liberal democracies. At the same time, they are inseparable from histories of exclusion, hierarchy, and unequal access.
Beyond this Western lineage, many philosophical and cultural traditions conceive of freedom differently. In relational frameworks, such as Indigenous knowledge or spiritual traditions freedom is not opposed to dependency or obligation, but emerges through relationships, responsibility, and care. Freedom may be understood as harmony rather than choice, as release rather than self-assertion, or as collective rather than individual. These perspectives challenge the assumption that freedom must always align with autonomy, independence, or unlimited possibility.
Contemporary critical discourses further complicate the picture. Feminist, postcolonial, and queer theories reveal how freedom is unevenly distributed and deeply entangled with privilege, normativity, and access. They ask not only what freedom is, but for whom it is possible, and at what cost. In this sense, freedom is not a fixed state, but an ongoing negotiation between agency and constraint.
Aesthetic and design practices offer a unique way to engage with this complexity. Designed things, objects, systems, materials, images, do not simply express ideas of freedom; they actively shape and are shaped by them. They organize behavior, enable or restrict movement, structure visibility, and define what feels possible. Design can reinforce norms and control, but it can also open spaces for ambiguity, resistance, speculation, and alternative futures.
Positions on Freedom. Design and its Boundaries brings together multiple approaches to the topic: newly commissioned works by invited designers, contributions selected through an international Open Call, objects from a museum collection placed into new contexts, a publication that extends the discourse, and a scenography and visual communication that translate these questions into spatial and visual form. Rather than seeking a single definition, the exhibition embraces freedom as a field of tensions, between individual and collective, autonomy and dependence, possibility and limitation, and makes these tensions visible through designed things.
The exhibition unfolds across three interconnected components:
1) In collaboration with USM, three invited and commissioned designers, Fatma Cankaya, Mawuto Dotou, and Johanna Seelemann, develop new works that explore freedom by reinterpreting an industrial system of order as a point of departure. The fellows were provided with a budget as well as materials from USM’s most frequently sold shelving system. They were also granted insight into USM’s manufacturing facilities. Within these given conditions, the fellows are free to manipulate, adapt, deconstruct, or otherwise reinterpret the framework of the furniture system in ways that align with their perspectives, values, and interpretations.
2) An international Open Call invites designers, architects, artists, brands, and interdisciplinary practitioners to submit works that explore freedom and design from transdisciplinary and applied perspectives. The Open Call is curated by Anton Rahlwes together with design critic and curator Vera Sacchetti.
3) A collection-based module brings together and contextualizes selected museum objects, making different facets of freedom perceptible as a historical, cultural, and institutional concept. Each Head of Collection at the Museum Angewandte Kunst, along with the Director and two curatorial trainees, contributes a curated position.
In addition, an independent reader edited and published by Anton Rahlwes and Nina Sieverding expands the discourse through further written contributions on the topic.
The exhibition scenography brings the different elements together through an overarching conceptual framework, conceived and designed by Anton Defant and Lotti Defant. The visual identity and graphic communication for the project are developed by Autostrada Studios.
Central to the fellowship’s approach is the conviction that content and its modes of mediation are inseparable. Exhibition design, graphic communication, publication, curatorial practice, and the exhibited positions themselves are understood as equally relevant contributors to meaning-making. Clear communication, transparency, and the visible authorship of all contributors are therefore integral to the fellowship’s understanding and practice of collaboration, knowledge production, and public discourse.
Positions on Freedom. Design and its Boundaries, by the thing Fellowship, is an interdisciplinary exhibition and publication developed as part of World Design Capital Frankfurt RheinMain 2026 and its theme Design for Democracy. Atmospheres for a Better Life. Hosted at the Museum for Applied Arts in Frankfurt, the project brings together (1) commissioned works by invited fellows, (2) an international Open Call, and (3) a collaboration with the museum to explore freedom as a plural, contested, and context-dependent concept. Initiated and artistically directed by Anton Rahlwes, the fellowship is realised in partnership with USM and Fondation USM and is closely connected to the thing Magazine.
The exhibition runs from 14 May to 28 June 2026, with an opening on 13 May 2026.
Adress: Museum Angewandte Kunst, Schaumainkai 17, 60549 Frankfurt am Main
Freedom: A Shared Question, Diverse Positions
Freedom is one of the most widely used, and most contested, concepts of our time. It is a fundamental element in constitutions, political struggles, cultural debates, and personal narratives. Yet despite its centrality, freedom resists a single, stable definition. Across history and cultures, freedom has been understood not as one universal condition, but as a plural and relational concept, shaped by context, power, and lived experience.
Historically, Western traditions have framed freedom primarily as an individual right: political participation in antiquity, moral autonomy in Christian philosophy, rational self-determination during the Enlightenment, and legal protection within modern democratic states. These ideas continue to inform contemporary understandings of freedom, particularly in liberal democracies. At the same time, they are inseparable from histories of exclusion, hierarchy, and unequal access.
Beyond this Western lineage, many philosophical and cultural traditions conceive of freedom differently. In relational frameworks, such as Indigenous knowledge or spiritual traditions freedom is not opposed to dependency or obligation, but emerges through relationships, responsibility, and care. Freedom may be understood as harmony rather than choice, as release rather than self-assertion, or as collective rather than individual. These perspectives challenge the assumption that freedom must always align with autonomy, independence, or unlimited possibility.
Contemporary critical discourses further complicate the picture. Feminist, postcolonial, and queer theories reveal how freedom is unevenly distributed and deeply entangled with privilege, normativity, and access. They ask not only what freedom is, but for whom it is possible, and at what cost. In this sense, freedom is not a fixed state, but an ongoing negotiation between agency and constraint.
Aesthetic and design practices offer a unique way to engage with this complexity. Designed things, objects, systems, materials, images, do not simply express ideas of freedom; they actively shape and are shaped by them. They organize behavior, enable or restrict movement, structure visibility, and define what feels possible. Design can reinforce norms and control, but it can also open spaces for ambiguity, resistance, speculation, and alternative futures.
Positions on Freedom. Design and its Boundaries brings together multiple approaches to the topic: newly commissioned works by invited designers, contributions selected through an international Open Call, objects from a museum collection placed into new contexts, a publication that extends the discourse, and a scenography and visual communication that translate these questions into spatial and visual form. Rather than seeking a single definition, the exhibition embraces freedom as a field of tensions, between individual and collective, autonomy and dependence, possibility and limitation, and makes these tensions visible through designed things.
The exhibition unfolds across three interconnected components:
1) In collaboration with USM, three invited and commissioned designers, Fatma Cankaya, Mawuto Dotou, and Johanna Seelemann, develop new works that explore freedom by reinterpreting an industrial system of order as a point of departure. The fellows were provided with a budget as well as materials from USM’s most frequently sold shelving system. They were also granted insight into USM’s manufacturing facilities. Within these given conditions, the fellows are free to manipulate, adapt, deconstruct, or otherwise reinterpret the framework of the furniture system in ways that align with their perspectives, values, and interpretations.
2) An international Open Call invites designers, architects, artists, brands, and interdisciplinary practitioners to submit works that explore freedom and design from transdisciplinary and applied perspectives. The Open Call is curated by Anton Rahlwes together with design critic and curator Vera Sacchetti.
3) A collection-based module brings together and contextualizes selected museum objects, making different facets of freedom perceptible as a historical, cultural, and institutional concept. Each Head of Collection at the Museum Angewandte Kunst, along with the Director and two curatorial trainees, contributes a curated position.
In addition, an independent reader edited and published by Anton Rahlwes and Nina Sieverding expands the discourse through further written contributions on the topic.
The exhibition scenography brings the different elements together through an overarching conceptual framework, conceived and designed by Anton Defant and Lotti Defant. The visual identity and graphic communication for the project are developed by Autostrada Studios.
Central to the fellowship’s approach is the conviction that content and its modes of mediation are inseparable. Exhibition design, graphic communication, publication, curatorial practice, and the exhibited positions themselves are understood as equally relevant contributors to meaning-making. Clear communication, transparency, and the visible authorship of all contributors are therefore integral to the fellowship’s understanding and practice of collaboration, knowledge production, and public discourse.