Is design a tool for liberation – or a system that imposes limits? And how can a design firm actively contribute to the promotion of artistic freedom? With the exhibition “Positions on Freedom: Design and its Limits”, the Museum of Applied Arts in Frankfurt am Main will address one of the central questions of our time from 14 May to 28 June 2026, opening up an open discourse on design as a social practice. The project is being developed as part of World Design Capital Frankfurt RheinMain 2026 and was realised through the thing Fellowship of the thing Magazine. In close collaboration with USM and the Fondation USM, the exhibition explores how freedom of expression can emerge within the tension between institutional structures and entrepreneurial activity.

At the heart of the exhibition lies an expanded understanding of design: design is conceived not merely as a discipline concerned with form, but as a medium that enables freedom, structures it – and at the same time limits it. A central part of the exhibition emerges from a direct engagement with the USM Haller modular furniture system, which is presented not as a finished design object, but as an open system – as material, as infrastructure and as a conceptual model. The invited designers Fatma Cankaya, Mawuto Dotou and Johanna Seelemann use the system as a material and conceptual starting point to renegotiate questions of freedom, value, identity and materiality:

– Fatma Cankaya transforms the ‘Frankfurt Wardrobe’ into an artefact of post-migrant meme culture–
Mawuto Dotou deconstructs societal value
attributions– Johanna Seelemann questions the boundaries between the natural and cultural spheres

The works serve as examples of how an industrial system can be transformed through artistic appropriation – and how this gives rise to new perspectives on freedom. Alongside the projects by the three designers, the exhibition brings together over 20 further contributions from transdisciplinary and applied perspectives, as well as an accompanying publication. The initiator and artistic director is Anton Rahlwes. The works illustrate that freedom arises at the intersection of structure and openness – precisely where industrial systems such as USM Haller are situated. Thus, the collaboration itself becomes part of the question: how can entrepreneurial activity create space for discursive design?

“Design changes the way we see the world – and, in doing so, the world itself. That is why our responsibility as a company does not end with the product: it begins where design becomes part of the public discourse. ‘Positions on Freedom’ specifically creates space for perspectives that we ourselves could not have adopted. For when artists and designers re-examine and challenge a system, something essential emerges – freedom as a reality that can be shaped. We want to play an active part in this.” Katharina Janku, CEO of USM Germany.
Invitation to the press conference and exhibition opening

Exhibition opening:
Wednesday, 13 May 2026, 7 pm
Venue: Museum of Applied Arts
Schaumainkai 17
60594 Frankfurt am Main

www.museumangewandtekunst.de