The new Museum Angewandte Kunst exhibition: Wool. Silk. Resistance.

Wool. Silk. Resistance. at the Museum Angewandte Kunst opens its showcase of textile designs woven in layers of collective dissent

 For the first time in 45 years, the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt turns its full attention to rugs, carpets and tapestries from 7 February to 24 May 2026.
 

Curated by Dr Katharina Weiler, it arrives at a moment of renewed global interest in handmade textiles, reflected in a growing number of international exhibitions exploring craft, materiality and labour.

Rugs for Resilience

Rather than framing rugs and tapestries through traditional stylistic or art-historical lenses, the exhibition situates them within a broader, non-Western trajectory of textile practice.

Through the contemporary reinterpretation of rugs and carpets, the exhibition encapsulates themes of political opposition and resistance directed towards unjust social systems of discrimination, racism, trauma and environmental degradation.

The exhibition features works by:

 Faig Ahmed, Diedrick Brackens, Johannah Herr, Jan Kath,Alexandra Kehayoglou, William Kentridge, Baseera Khan, Noelle Mason, Otobong Nkanga, Tobias Rehberger, Erin M. Riley,Tsherin Sherpa,Rose Stach, Nasan Tur and Jeroen van den Bogaert.

Their designs act as powerful form of collective resilience. They extend into three dimensions, taking form as textile sculptures and immersive environments with tactile and emotional presence that is directed towards a contemporary lived experience.

At its core, Wool. Silk. Resistance. examines how making art within sociopolitical contexts requires a conscious position in relation to lived realities. Resistance is understood as a relational experience shaped by subjectivity, difference and circumstance.

Its title poses a central question: how can rugs, carpets and tapestries give form to the semantics of resilience?

Words by Libbi Kettle