U.S.-based graphic design superstar Stefan Sagmeister presents the results of his decade-long investigation into happiness in "The Happy Show". After stops in North America, Paris and Vienna, his hit show can now be seen for the first and only time in Germany: from 23 April to 25 September 2016 at the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt am Main.
What makes us happy? Can we be trained to be happy? Stefan Sagmeister, who closes his New York studio for a sabbatical every seven years, has embarked on a personal quest for happiness, subjecting himself to various self-experiments to find out the most effective way to increase an individual's sense of happiness: He has tried meditation, concentration, and relaxation techniques; undergone cognitive behavioral therapy; and consumed mood-boosting pharmaceuticals.
He supplements the results of these experiments with social science data from psychologists Daniel Gilbert, Steven Pinker, and Jonathan Haidt, anthropologist Donald Symons, and eminent historians, placing them in a larger context.
In a playful and intriguing way, Sagmeister incorporates his research on happiness into highly emotional infographics, fascinating headlines, prints, amusingly instructive videos, films, installations, and sculptures, allowing visitors to "The Happy Show" to immerse themselves in his world of thought.
Before striking black and yellow, his works flood the Museum Angewandte Kunst, additionally spreading out in the elevators, stairways, and functional spaces of the house.
A visit to the exhibition "The Happy Show" is by no means exhausted in passive contemplation, however. Rather, happiness becomes a collective matter here, as visitors are questioned in various interactive installations and invited to participate in both psychological and physical ways. They can draw cards with auspicious tasks, are asked to take money from a container and donate 20 cents themselves, which roll through the museum on a marble run, changing hands as they go. Sagmeister's favorite candies are offered on silver plates.
Movement and activity as the key to happiness are one of the show's central messages. Thus, numerous exhibits encourage visitors to get involved, such as a bicycle that propels giant neon neon signs: Only those who pedal hard are rewarded with Sagmeisterian slogans of happiness beaming from the wall. A direct invitation to laugh is provided by a typographic installation made of pieces of sugar, which glows all the more colorfully the wider the laugh.
At the end of the show, gigantic gumball machines form a scale in which visitors rate their happiness level from 1 to 10 by pulling a piece of gum from the corresponding tube. At the same time, the collective happiness level of all previous visitors to the exhibition is visualized. A rousing search for happiness in a bright yellow cosmos full of thought-provoking messages.
(from Museum Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt press release)
Further information:
http://www.museumangewandtekunst.de
