Jerszy Seymour Design Workshop was founded in Berlin in 2004. Committed to looking at new forms of mutual and communal life processes, the studio focuses on the production of objects, installations, exhibitions, and situations. Working in an expanded context that combines art, design and activism, the question of how to shape our social, political, and ecological reality is of critical concern. Jerszy Seymour Design Workshop engages an entangled or ‘dirty’ approach, relying as much on engineering and material exploration as on humour and poetics, to imagine future-orientated ways of living.
Jerszy Seymour sees design as the creation of situations whose goal is the transformation of reality. His work is defined by the idea of the Non-Gesamt Gesamt Kunstwerk, the Every-topia, and a quixotic form of humour as an antidote to dogma. He positions his role as a designer as a research into contemporary utopian possibilities and alternative world building strategies through the creation of both practical and symbolic situations in order to formulate alternative systems and ways of being, and for them to act as living unauthorised models in a decentralised and autonomous reality in themselves.
His work has been presented in many museums and institutions and is held in many permanent collections including the Centre Georges Pompidou, the MAK Vienna, Kunsthaus Glarus, the Vitra Design Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Neue Sammlung – Pinakothek der Moderne Munich, Marta Herford, Mudam Luxembourg, Fondation Lafayette and the Fonds National d’ Art Contemporain France. In parallel he has taught and given lectures and workshops at many schools including the Royal College of Art, UdK , Domus Academy, La Sapienza, Eindhoven Academy, Berlin Program for Artists, Hfg Karlsruhe and Saarbrucken, Cranbrook Academy, Ecal Lausanne and the HEAD in Geneva. Since 2011, he is co-founder and director of the Dirty Art Department, a radical masters program in art and design, at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam.
2026 Mutuogenesis, S27/Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, DE
2025 Boros Collection , Berlin, DE
2023 Extraversal Works, Galerie Plan B, Berlin, DE
2022 Acid Tracks, Galerie Kreo, Paris, FR
2021 Sunrise Apocalypse, Mk&G and Kultursommer Hamburg, Hamburg, DE
2021 Life on Planet Orsimanirana, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, DE
2020 O.M.R Sanitary Unit #1, Martell Foundation, Cognac, FR
2019 An Intimate Autonomous Decentralised Choreography, Teatro Materno, Ascona, CH
2019 Sacred Mountain, Etage Projects, Copenhagen, DK
2018 All World Assembly, S27 Kunst and Bildung, Berlin, DE
2018 The Wandering School: Part 2 – Sandberg Instituut/ AFSA Athens, GR
2017 Lucky Larry’s Cosmic Commune, St. Etienne Biennale, St. Etienne, FR
2017 Aliens of the World Unite, Cucula Workshop for Refugees, Berlin, DE
2016 Amateur Workshop #5 A Pervert’s Guide to Design, Broehann Museum, Berlin, DE
2016 The Wandering School, MACAO Nuovo Centro per L’Arte, Milan, IT
2015 Amateur Workshop #4 Sisyphus on Tour, Platform, Munich, DE
2014 The First Annual Report, MU Garage/ Lafayette Foundation, Paris, FR
2014 Extra National Assembly, Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland
2013 New Dirty Enterprises, Gallery Crone, Berlin, DE
2013 Amateur Workshop #3 Anarchy as a Rhythm, MAK, Vienna, AT
2013 The Universe Want To Play, Gallery Crone, Berlin, DE
2012 Amateur Workshop #2 (Anti-) Social Volcano, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, DE
2011 Amateur Workshop #1, Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR
2011 Totem and Taboo, Museums Quartier, Vienna, AT
2009 Being There, Villa Noailles, FR
2009 Coalition of Amateurs, MUDAM, LUX
2009 Salon des Amateur, MARTA Herford, DE
2009 Amateur Furniture, Esther Schipper Gallery, Berlin, DE
2008 Formless Furniture, MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, AT
2008 The First Supper, MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst Vienna, AT
2007 Vitra Edition, Vitra Campus, Weil am Rhein, DE
2007 My Home, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, DE
2005 The Brussels Brain, Art Brussels, BE
2004 Scum Skate, Tokyo Design Block, Tokyo, JP
2004 Mo Scum, Diesel Gallery, New York, US
2003 Tape, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR
2003 Welcome to Scum City, Gallery Facsimile, Milan, IT
2003 Lowlife, Galerie Kreo, Paris, FR
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Museum of Modern Art, New York, US
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, FR
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna, AT
Die Neue Sammlung – Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, DE
Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg, LU
Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, FR
Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, DE
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, US
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, DE
Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Bordeaux, FR
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Centre International de Recherche sur le Verre et les Arts Plastiques, Marseille, FR
