Lena Henke
The mind is like an umbrella Its most useful when open (Saftpresse), 2022

In her new sculpture series, Lena Henke deals with the history of the Hansaviertel in Berlin, a post-war district with modernist social housing. It was built in 1957 on the occasion of the International Building Exhibition (Interbau) by renowned architects such as Oscar Niemeyer, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier and others.

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The modern and functional design of the architecture was underlined by the furnishings of the apartments, with most of the kitchens being equipped with Braun appliances. During her research, Lena Henke noticed that only men were involved in the planning of the district's new apartments as well as in  the design of the Braun appliances. While the room for which the appliances were designed, the kitchen, was exclusively reserved for women.

 

Lena Henke addresses this power relationship in her 1.5-fold enlarged kitchen appliances, which were created using 3-D printing technology. She left the surface unprocessed, so that small imperfections created a biomorphic surface. Through these small interventions, Lena Henke underlines the autonomy of the objects and gives household work the presence and respect it deserves.

 

In total, four Braun kitchen appliances were created: A food processor, a blender, the Aromaster coffee maker and, precisely, the citrus press, "The mind is like an umbrella. It's most useful when open," is the title of the work, which is in the Stadler Collection.

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You can find out more about the Hansaviertel and Lena Henke's Braun kitchen appliances here.

The Welt am Sonntag also dedicated an article to the sculpture series.