Since 2017, KW Institute for Contemporary Art has been hosting the residency format A Year with…, a program that generates an in-depth engagement with an artistic practice through a variety of inward and outward facing formats over the course of one year. In 2022, the duo BLESS takes over the program. Ines Kaag and Desiree Heiss have been working together on numerous transdisciplinary projects since 1997. As self-proclaimed situation designers, their products blend fashion and art, design and architecture, business and social practice, with the aim of creating an equilibrium between mental and physical exercise. Motivated to make pieces fit for everyday use, BLESS understand their practice and products as a way of life—based on the firm belief that one can shape life today in a way that creates a future worth living in.

In 2022, BLESS celebrates her 25th anniversary, which KW takes as an opportunity to put the focus on Desiree Heiss and Ines Kaag’s visionary products and endeavors. A Year with BLESS renegotiates many of the key issues that lie at the heart of her collaboration, creating an innovative format that seeks to connect life, work, leisure, and exercise. The duo rethinks existing processes and workflows and tests them out artistically in different public areas.The one-year collaboration unfolds across three key projects: the BLESS N°72 BLESSlet at KW; interventions in the form of public events at KW and in the Ernst-Reuter-Siedlung, where the duo has her Berlin-based studio, for example with the BLESS N°72 Saunarider, in collaboration with Sam Chermayeff Office; and the release of the third book of her own publication series, BLESS III.

Curator: Anna Gritz

Assistant curator: Léon Kruijswijk

Digital Exhibition Leaflet