Wollbau

Folke Köbberling deals with the urban environment and its transience as a reflection of general social processes. In spatial and sculptural site-specific interventions, she addresses issues about public space, grassroots participation and self-organization, the market economy, mobility, housing, sustainability, and resource scarcity, all of which have inherent potential for social conflict.

In view of a raw wool price of 12 cents per kilogram, the lovely idea of the sheep as a cuddly clothing producer proves to be a romantic rapture. Rather, in view of the fact that sheep's wool today increasingly has to be disposed of as hazardous waste, the animals are "looking for jobs". Köbberling offers various concepts for this, such as using the wool as technologies for constructions.

YEAH, BUT IS IT TECHNOLOGY? Yes of Course! asks what direction would technology have taken if skills that are normally attributed to women and other anomalies were given the attention they deserve, and proposes that by embracing the practical application of lines and threads we can build a richer and more sustainable future. Scientists now accept that humankind’s first tool was not a weapon but a carrier bag, that humans tended toward sociable collectives rather than submission to hierarchy, that whole social systems were adopted or discarded according to need. These facts are now recognised because evidence long existing has been reevaluated in less biased ways. The evidence was not difficult to find, it was just ignored. Patriarchal biases have labelled one practice technology and the other craft. Both are dependent on the practical application of knowledge, yet one attracts prestige, income, and a taste of progress while the other is deemed pretty but also pretty useless. Could an embracing of ignored technologies lead to a regenerative practice that drives environmental and societal progress? Of course it could!