The Home Front
At the German Pavilion of the 2026 Venice Biennale, visitors encounter four early KFF designs: SINUS, WILD FÖRST, JÄGER and SCHALENSTUHL. They form part of Henrike Naumann’s installation The Home Front – Die Innere Front, which transforms the German Pavilion into a space of remembrance, where private domestic environments, political history and social upheaval intersect.
Henrike Naumann, who passed away unexpectedly in February 2026, designed the central interior space of the German Pavilion, while Sung Tieu created the installations for the façade and the two adjoining rooms. Naumann’s work has been realised in accordance with her artistic vision, preserving the perspective of an artist who spent many years exploring how political history becomes embedded in everyday spaces and manifests itself within them. Her installations use furniture, wallpaper, colours and everyday objects not as decorative elements, but as cultural traces and testimonies of their time. In her work, the interior becomes an archive: preserving ideas of belonging and identity, the conflicts concealed beneath them, and the human desire for security.
The Home Front – Die Innere Front examines German history from a distinctly East German perspective. The installation connects the post-war period, everyday life in the GDR and the so-called Baseballschlägerjahre (baseball bat years) of the 1990s with the present day. The main hall of the German Pavilion takes on the appearance of a living space that feels both familiar and unsettling: curtains, furniture and interior objects create an atmosphere suspended between domestic comfort and an underlying sense of threat.
Within this context, the early KFF models take on new layers of meaning. The chairs date back to a period when the company, founded in 1984, was establishing its own distinctive design language. SINUS, designed by Karl-Friedrich Förster, represents an early milestone in this development. With its curved frame and raw, minimalist aesthetic, it exemplifies the design philosophy that shaped KFF’s formative years. WILD FÖRST, JÄGER and SCHALENSTUHL also belong to this period of exploration and the search for a distinct identity, when furniture was understood not merely as functional objects, but as consciously designed elements of living spaces.
In Henrike Naumann’s installation, however, these pieces transcend their original purpose. Rather than representing comfort or design alone, they become part of an artistic exploration of how spaces preserve memories. Naumann’s East German background intersects with a narrative of West German experiences, periods of upheaval and the question of which images of the past continue to live on in our homes, furniture and everyday objects.
It is precisely this interplay that gives the installation its particular power: a chair remains a chair, yet at the same time becomes a document of its era. The KFF models reflect a chapter in the history of German design, while Naumann’s installation places them within a broader social context. A dialogue emerges between art history, everyday culture and political memory, revealing how even seemingly private objects form part of our collective history. As Carol Hanisch wrote in her 1970 essay, the personal is always, inevitably, political.
Exhibition runs
from 9 May to 22 November 2026
10:00 am – 6:00 pm
German Pavilion
Giardini della Biennale
30122 Venice, Italy
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