ROLF SACHS' "BERÜHRUNG" CANDLE STICK COLLECTION WANTS TO TOUCH PEOPLE. THE UNIQUE PIECES FOR NYMPHENBURG PUT BLEMISHES IN THE RIGHT LIGHT.

Perfection, purity and detail: that is the ethos with which work has been conducted in the master workshops of the Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg for 275 years. And then Rolf Sachs comes along - artist, designer, jack-of-all-trades - and throws everything overboard with an approach that strikes a balance between faire and laisser-faire. In his new collaboration with Nymphenburg, porcelain is kneaded with verve, shaped with intuition and bent and pressed with impulse. An affront to the precious material? On the contrary, this is a declaration of love! "Perfect often seems a little sterile. I have always loved flaws more," the 68-year-old explains.

The candlesticks from the "Berührung" series invite the manufactory and the material to go new ways. In this case, porcelain no longer has its usual transparency and delicacy but is full of cracks, fingerprints and seemingly arbitrary shapes. The candlesticks become unconventional, poetic one-offs that come in all shapes and sizes: small and large, high and low, in pure white bisque porcelain or stained with coloured glazes. 

The limited collection  will be available from 24 October 2023 at our Flagshipstore, Nördliches Schlossrondell 8, Munich.

Porcelain usually follows fixed procedures at the manufactory. In this case, Rolf approaches the medium more spontaneously, molding, turning, embossing, painting, firing it with great freedom.  Despite many years of cooperation with Nymphenburg, porcelain remains something special for the Swiss artist. It is a moving experience to feel the fine material with his hands, to shape it and to deal with it, even more: to engage with it with all his senses. Berührung is the true expression of Rolf’s desire to make ‘arts emotionnels’ instead of ‘arts decoratifs’.

"Berührung" is a deliberate break from today's perfectionism as a general standard and is intended to encourage us to acknowledge imperfections... and celebrate them. For the artist, the focus of his work has always been the examination of people: "The more eccentric we are, the more we show of our character," Sachs believes and calls on us to stop hiding our flaws and instead to live with them and even enjoy them.  "Berührung", in keeping with the tradition of Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg as a centrepiece on the table, stimulates discussion and invites us to rediscover the soul of porcelain.