Voices Mag

Legal Notice

This media station is part of the exhibition “The Blue Swords – Meissen in the GDR” (20.09.2025—22.02.2026) of the porcelain collection of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden at the Japanisches Palais and was conceived after an idea by Meghan McNamee.

 

Concept: Jacob Franke, Meghan McNamee

Editing: Elena Hertenstein, Sarah Felix, Jacob Franke, Meghan McNamee

Image editing: Sarah Felix

 

Translation: Valentin Sebastian Lorenz, Meghan McNamee

 

Technological realization and support: XIMA Media GmbH

 

A special thanks to Sylvia Braun of the company archive of the Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen GmbH for providing the historical photographs.

Do you have any comments, suggestions or questions? Write us an email.
Searching for Traces: Meissen Murals in Dresden and Meissen

In 1953, the Department of Artistic Wall Design was established at the State Porcelain Manufactory in Meissen. It carried out commissions throughout the GDR, enriching not only state buildings but also churches, cafés, hotels and shops with architectural art. Later, commissions were carried out for clients from West Germany, the USA and Japan. The designs came from the manufactory's own collective of artists and external artists. This map provides an overview of the murals in Dresden and Meissen. Some have already fallen victim to remodelling and renovation, while others can still be viewed on site, which we cordially invite you to do with this map.

Wall decoration with red, brown and green tiles, metal lines and round elements in red, yellow and green.
Two blue crossed swords as the logo of Meissen Porcelain on blue, white and black rectangular tiles.
Two blue crossed swords as the logo of Meissen Porcelain on blue, white and black rectangular tiles.
Wall decoration with red, brown and green tiles, metal lines and round elements in red, yellow and green.

Welcome to voices, the digital platform of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden! More

26. May 2025 — Film
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To Saxony-Paris and Back

In the wake of the Europe-wide MADE IN project, the Kunstgewerbemuseum brought together the textile designer Cécile Feilchenfeld and traditional Saxon businesses. We captured the process on film, through which she developed headdresses referencing Christmas trees from the Erzgebirge, silk flowers from Arnsdorf and porcelain from Meissen. They are currently on display at the Future Legacies exhibition at the Center ROG & MAO Slovenia in Ljubljana and will be available to see in Schneeberg starting in October.

17. January 2024 — Article
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Krater project: from a feral plant to a feral site

They say that bad weeds grow tall. Where building projects have failed to do so, weeds often grow tall instead, bearing witness to the stranding of earlier ambitions. But how should we deal with such spaces in the city? What should we do with the craters left behind by failed building plans? A collective of creatives in Ljubljana finds answers.

28. November 2023 — Article
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The stories coco de macuco tells us

In this article, Taiane Linhares introduces plant storytelling as a method for reconnecting to ancestral wisdom and relating to unfamiliar places and cultures. In her crash investigation during the Design Campus in Pillnitz, she used a family story involving a plant relative to develop connections to the royal garden’s Palmenhaus. The result of this research was a mixed-media piece expressing the local and global impacts of the colonisation process and its persistence.

10. November 2023 — Article
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Power Games – Of Pleasure Gardens and Golf Courses

Katharina Mludek took part in this year's Design Campus at the Museum of Decorative Arts, which was all about plant fever. She wrote for us about pleasure and play in the (Pillnitz) garden and about who actually cultivates whom in the garden.

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