Mona Steinhaeußer

Mona was raised in an anthroposophical context, which motivated her early on to create alternative structures. Her Bachelor degree in Fashion Design at the Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and Design (2015) already made her question her place in the fashion world and positioned her at the intersection of art and design. During the master program Fashion Matters, Sandberg Institute her motivation has stretched to analyze economical effects on society and how it affects our understanding of value. With co-founding Ikigo Studios (2020), she implemented a new form of circular retail, focusing on sustainable fashion, in the commercial market. Since then, she has been exploring the influence of art on sustainable consumerism.

Mona is a designer who explores the language of consumerism to promote a shift in consciousness towards sustainability in society. She uses common commercial strategies that trigger known mechanisms and at the same time irritatingly challenge them.

Sustainability is the topic of our time and influences our entire living environment. Both the individual consumer and corporate structures play a major role in the development process towards a sustainable world. In the residency I will focus on artistic engagement towards sustainability, in corporate context, as well as in commerce-oriented everyday life. Doing so, allows for a pluralistic, emotional engagement with the topic, to find  better ways than greenwashing and to form an autonomous counter-position to objectification and fetishization of arts.