Eike König x PLATTE.Berlin – Der Zweifel

Eike König is a graphic designer and artist based in Berlin, off the busy Mehringdamm. In a recent collection with PLATTE he designed sweatshirts, t-shirts and caps exploring doubts around the Berlin creative industries. The prints spelling out Absence/Presence, Despair, Drama and Der Zweifel were photographed by Sven Marquardt on the painter Jette, DJ Juba, musician Zachi, artist Samja and Eike himself, respectively.

As part of Logic Records, an influential music label for europop and electronic music in the 80s and 90s, König has been part of the scene for a long time. In an interview we talk about developments he has observed, funding cuts to universities and why it is important to doubt but never to despair.

Lynn Yin Dittel Sven Marquardt’s new photo series shows your clothing line. Both the campaign and the collection are called THE DOUBT. You could call that name provocative. How did it come about?

Eike König Doubt describes the feeling of our time, doesn’t it?. Not personally, but socially, globally. We live with abstract, existential crises that have thrown everything into disarray and have especially immobilised young people. For me personally it was easier to endure. For many students it was extremely life changing. But doubt itself is positive. It keeps you open. It only becomes dangerous when doubt is not translated into something constructive. Then it becomes despair.

LYNN YIN DITTEL / Œ: You teach at HfG Offenbach, a public university in Offenbach by Main, a city close to Frankfurt. Do you see despair among your students?

DJ JUBA is wearing
Presence/Absence T-Shirt – PLATTE x Eike König

EIKE KÖNIG: Sometimes, depending on the phase of the degree. Studying art is abstract. Romanticised doubt suddenly hits the reality of a harsh market in which very few people make a living from art. At the same time an art degree trains the brain to think differently, and that is the more valuable part for me. Artistic perspectives can be applied everywhere.

Of course students also despair. Our task is to catch that and show them that their studies are socially relevant.

Œ: To doubt, but not to despair?

EIKE KÖNIG: Exactly. Despair means putting your head in the sand and waiting for the storm to pass. That does not work. Doubt on the other hand means looking for reasons. That is healthy.

Right now I feel a societal despair. We have authoritarian, mostly older men who hold enormous power over the future of the world. And as a society we find almost no means against it. In Germany too there is an arrogance toward the political right that is now marching through. We should carry doubt more consciously, but despair does not get us anywhere.

Œ: Doubt in politics is also strong at art schools, especially in Berlin where the Senate has cut a lot of funding.

EIKE KÖNIG: In Offenbach 10% was cut. That is enormous. Savings then hit the teaching staff, which directly lowers the quality. Years of investment in young people and infrastructure evaporate. Added to this is a kind of beginning war economy. Money for defence is burned, it does not return to society. And still they save on education, even though poor education weakens society. It also affects children. When childcare places are missing, parents cannot work. It runs through every level. For me it is clear that education must not be cut.

Œ: Best case, you would think politics does not see the value of artistic education. Worst case, you could think there was another motive.

EIKE KÖNIG: Exactly. Cuts can be a political tool of power. In Berlin funds for subcultures, queer feminist spaces and so on were deliberately removed. Much that was built with effort is gone. Large institutions might compensate for it, smaller ones cannot. That can be used as a weapon to silence artists. When museums and their contents are revised according to a world view, that is no longer art but propaganda. I am 57, a child of the Cold War, where the nuclear threat was present. I never thought I would feel that again. Or that fascism in Germany would become so strong again. It is sobering. Funding cuts are another mechanism of power.

Œ: Are private sponsors an alternative?

EIKE KÖNIG: Which ones? The big tech companies? You do not want to bring them in. Ideally a university would exist without influence from outside. Every company wants something in return. Already now professors are expected to raise third party funds and can top up their salary with it. But that shifts the focus. When industry becomes the main client, teaching loses its freedom. I see art school as a protected space between home and the work place. A place where you are allowed to fail and can work without pressure to be profitable. Once you sell that space, you lose something essential.

Œ: You kind of sound like you’re despairing.

EIKE KÖNIG: Not really. But I organised a festival at my university, “After School Club”. It was completely self-funded, and we often discussed whether we should bring on a sponsor. It would have been easier, but we would have lost our independence. Who speaks? Which brand gets involved in the programme? You know, there’s festivals where suddenly Adobe gives a sales pitch. It’s very transparent. If a sponsor gave money without wanting anything, that would be great, but that does not happen. Still I am not despairing. Somehow we will manage.

ZACHI is wearing
Despair Sweatshirt & Cap – PLATTE x Eike König

Œ: Back in the day you were at Logic Records. Do you think we are in a worse position today in music and the creative field?

EIKE KÖNIG: Hard to compare. That was the birth of techno: Detroit, Berlin, Frankfurt. In Germany Frankfurt was important, with clubs like Omen. I felt part of this movement, also with its naivety. Love Parade, Love Train, a mixture of hedonism and politics. You rarely experience something like that, a completely new musical direction, a scene positioning itself against the old. The music industry had a golden era then, which made my work as a designer very easy and fulfilling. Designing for music is a privilege. Today many things are different, but every decade has things that are exciting, frightening, inspiring. But the density of crises now is greater than then.

Œ: That time always seems incredibly free. Today everything seems to be part of one or another conglomerate.

EIKE KÖNIG: That is the power of capital. Back then Berlin felt like a huge playground. Empty spaces, low rents, hardly any risk. You could try anything. These spaces exist much less today. The mini labels, the small structures, all of that is decreasing because everything becomes more expensive and more centralised.

Œ: Have you known Sven since then?

EIKE KÖNIG: Only from the door, Ostgut, E-Werk. I only met him personally during the shoot.

Œ: How was it working with him?

KÖNIG: Wonderful. People project a lot onto figures like him. Door icon, chronicler of a scene. But he is sensitive, intelligent, warm, completely grounded. He knew my name, which impressed me. With the amount of people he sees at the door, he must actually build a shell around himself. Yet he is very attentive. Also his relationship to his assistant was great to watch. The concept was entirely his. I only made the clothing. Everyone can see that it is more of a photographic work by Sven than a classic campaign.

SAMJA is wearing
Drama Sweatshirt – PLATTE x Eike König
Boots – Trippen

Œ: And the words? Absence/Presence, Despair, Drama, The Doubt? You selected those yourself.

EIKE KÖNIG: Yes. Language is central to my artistic practice, the space between sender and receiver. A word is clear, but its meaning depends on context. Language can trigger love or war. It changes constantly and is one of our most powerful tools. I often work with sentences, but single words have great force. Doubt, guilt, drama. Many of them we carry physically. We carry guilt, doubt gnaws. Some motifs come from older works, for example Presence Absence. Our daughter was stillborn two years ago. This work grew out of that experience. Presence and absence at the same time. But it is also read spiritually. For the PLATTE collaboration I selected the words that fit the cultural field today.

Œ: I know the two aren’t really separate, but do you see this work more as art or graphic design?

EIKE KÖNIG: Both. It builds on my artistic practice, language, typography, but the art comes from my design career. I am still also a graphic designer. Depending on the project I step more into one role or the other.

Œ: Todaywe’ve talked a lot about crises and the weird place young people find themselves in. I am sure you give a lot of advice to your students. What do you tell them in times like these?

EIKE KÖNIG: What I encounter again and again are fixed goals many students work towards, without looking right or left. But as a student, you don’t know who you are, yet. There are many possibilities and you should be open to them, just as you should remain open toward the future. Curiosity about yourself and curiosity about other people, then you also understands that every person has their own life story and reality.

JETTE is wearing
Presence Hoody & Despair Cap – PLATTE x Eike König