One of the attractions of Chinabrenner is its refreshing elusiveness when it comes to being categorised. Is it art, food or design? Is it an installation or somewhere good to eat? One catalogue calls what they do ‘artistic cooking events’, which is probably the closest I’ve read so far, to a reasonably concise descriptor.

Thomas Wrobel (the one who cooks) and Jo Zarth (the one who designs) spent some (a lot) of time in China researching the idea of  ‘street as kitchen’ then brought their findings back to Germany to become artistic cooking events in Leipzig, Berlin, Essen, Milan —and I suspect more places than this.

In essence what you see, hear, taste, smell, feel—is a traditional Chinese street kitchen, picked up, and transported to you by two people with a deep fascination for a particular culture. In the near future I hope to return to Leipzig and visit Thomas Wrobel’s new but as yet unopened restaurant.

More, in much more depth, on Chinabrenner soon. The ultimate aim is to publish on paper. Blogs don’t do it for some things.

Last 6 photographs courtesy of Chinabrenner and Zarthcore

Thomas Wrobel

Jo Zarth

GDR architecture. The Post building that follows this one is empty.

Jo Zarth’s Small Business Reconstructed catalogue.
More catalogue pictures on the zarthcore site.


Last 3 photographs courtesy of Zarthcore

Like the title type.

I was introduced to Jan Hartmann from Studio Hartensteiner who are the organisers for Designers’ Open, 28–30 October 2011. Afterwards I kept seeing these beautiful blue and black posters all over the city, combined in interesting ways.

Dzine at Gestalten Space.

Library of Halle 14, Spinnerei.

Leipzig is the place for publishing, book art, book design and printing. One of the reasons I need to return.

Halle 14

The type.

x

Outdoor screen.

The projection room.

The system.

Open air Kino, Spinnerei
Spinnerei Galleries
Spinnerei, from cotton to culture

Leipzig designer/photographer, Jo Zarth, kindly spent a day showing me around Leipzig, in particular, Plagwitz—the creative quarter of the city. He also gave me his spare bike.

A liking for chinoiserie shows up in much of his installation work — apart from King Size, the recent exhibition Small Business Reconstructed and collaborative work combining food, design, art and photography with Thomas Wrobel as Chinabrenner.