Perfectly Imperfect – Makel, Mankos und Defekte

Errors occur, mishaps happen, things get damaged, many things remain unfinished or provisional. Imperfection accompanies our lives and we learn to deal with it using different strategies. Even in creative processes, in the material world and in productions, imperfection itself and its consequences are extremely diverse - from a blemish that unexpectedly defines a valuable one-off to a ruinous production error or a failed construction project.

With the exhibition "Perfectly Imperfect", the Gewerbemuseum Winterthur explores the tension between perfection and deviation and examines the qualities of the supposedly flawed, the significance of the unfinished, the patina of the ephemeral and the art of repair. It is critically dedicated to a striving for quality that cannot be fulfilled or is deliberately and creatively undermined. In design processes and in our immediate living environment, the balance between a necessary or supposed demand for perfection and dealing with apparent and serious mistakes turns out to be complex. The question arises: when is something even perfect? What is the value of apparent shortcomings?

Wrong decisions or carelessness, technical defects, design flaws and the stubbornness of materials or their wear and tear and transience - the reasons for imperfection are manifold. The show exemplifies the extent to which the consequences of flaws, imperfections and defects can have damaging or positive effects, such as the charming blemish that makes an object something very special. The focus is on the deviation from the ideal and it is scrutinised how the damaged can be recovered or repaired, how reused material resources can lead to new solutions or how failure and playing with chance can open up new paths. Because: Perfectly Imperfect is much more than shortcomings and defects.