Launching the European Days of Arts and Crafts (ETAK), the exhibition Four Elements: Design and Decorative Arts from Paris and Berlin opens at Berlin’s Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts) on 30 March 2023. On view until 30 April 2023, it presents the competition results of the Landespreis Gestaltendes Handwerk (Berlin Regional Award for Design Crafts) from 2019 and 2022.

The exhibition also showcases contemporary production in arts and crafts independent of national boundaries. Prize-winning and shortlisted objects from Berlin are augmented by exhibits from Paris, curated by the CCI Paris Ile-de-France (Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry).

In a diverse show, artisans and designers from both capitals come together, exhibiting a striking language of forms, symbolism and materials.

Berlin’s design award, the Landespreis Gestaltendes Handwerk, was brought to life more than fifty years ago to support outstanding achievements in arts and crafts and design. The regional competition has developed into a recognised platform for contemporary arts and crafts over the last half-century.

The Landespreis has gained increasing importance throughout Europe because the exhibition opening and award ceremony launches the European Days of Arts and Crafts, which the Handwerkskammer Berlin (Berlin Chamber of Crafts) has been organising in Germany since 2011. In the interim, 22 other countries ‒ including Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Latvia, Ireland and Switzerland ‒ have joined and are now participating in this European event. Eleven regions in Germany are involved.

A special exhibition of the Handwerkskammer Berlin, in collaboration with the CCI Paris Ile-de-France and the Kunstgewerbemuseum – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin