Threads of Life
Kunstforum TU Darmstadt
1 November 2026 to 28 February 2027
Hannah Maria Schmutterer
Artistic practice
The dress as a poetic and sculptural form.
Working across textiles, fashion, installation, performance, poetry, and publication, her practice considers the dress as a poetic and sculptural form through which she explores how femininity is socially constructed through folklore, material culture, and memory.
Explore the projects2026 to 2027
Current & upcoming
Girlhood
Youth Culture, Fashion and Aesthetics
Kunstforum, TU Darmstadt
2 to 7 November 2026
Monday to Saturday · 8 am to 1 pm
How is girlhood represented, experienced and shaped? An intensive seminar combining feminist and intersectional perspectives with discussions, image analysis and creative exercises.
Seminar information
Women in Fairytales
Kunstforum TU Darmstadt
Performance details and date
Dress Poetics:
Detroit Edition
Always Tomorrow, Detroit
2 September to 4 October 2026
Textile works
Working with found and self made garments, Schmutterer layers textile collages on the floor, sews them together by hand and stretches them over frames. Symbolically charged garments, including dirndls, nightgowns and princess dresses, connect cultural memory and childhood fantasy with ideas of femininity and the labour of making. The works move between painting, tapestry and quilt making.
Performance / Installation
Dress Poetics
Founded and curated by Hannah Maria Schmutterer, Dress Poetics connects textile art, fashion, literature and theory through exhibitions, artist led workshops and publications. Garments become forms of storytelling, exploring personal and collective experiences through textiles, sculpture, performance and writing.
Exhibitions & readings
Publications
Fashion
Teaching practice
Workshops & teaching
Hannah Maria Schmutterer’s teaching connects artistic practice with reflection on art, textiles and visual culture. Theory and practical experimentation inform one another, with a global perspective and equal attention to women artists.
Her teaching spans art education, university and community workshops.
Community workshops
Workshops
Hands on workshops with fabrics, sewing and garment making connect participants with artistic practice.
University teaching & workshops
Textiles as storytelling
At TU Darmstadt, Schmutterer’s workshops bring theoretical perspectives on the dress as an artistic medium into dialogue with practical textile work.
Participants work with fabrics and garments to develop their own material narratives.
Girlhood
Youth Culture, Fashion and Aesthetics
Intensive seminar · Winter semester 2026/27
2 to 7 November 2026, Monday to Saturday
8 am to 1 pm each day
Kunstforum, TU Darmstadt · Department 03, Education
Faculty of Human Sciences
Module: Youth Cultures
Body Studies, Fashion & Aesthetics
Lecturer: Hannah Schmutterer
How is girlhood represented, experienced and shaped? The seminar approaches girlhood as a cultural and social concept whose meanings change over time. Drawing on feminist and intersectional perspectives, students explore how art, fashion, film, music and social media produce ideas of girlhood.
Questions of the body, identity, belonging and self presentation are central. From fairy tale princesses and teenage bedrooms to digital aesthetics, the seminar examines the interplay between social expectations and possibilities for agency.
Discussions of theoretical texts, image analysis, shared observations and experiences, and practical creative exercises open up ways to critically question girlhood and develop new perspectives.
School art education
Art in the classroom
Schmutterer has 3+ years of experience teaching art and continues to teach.
Art history and contemporary artistic positions are connected with students’ own practical work.
About
Art, research
& Dress Poetics
Hannah Maria Schmutterer is a German artist and PhD researcher at the Technical University of Darmstadt, where she investigates the dress (das Kleid) as a medium of artistic expression.
Working across textiles, fashion, installation, performance, poetry, and publication, her practice considers the dress as a poetic and sculptural form through which she explores how femininity is socially constructed through folklore, material culture, and memory.
She studied Fashion Design at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin and Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in London, and is the founder and curator of the exhibition and publication project Dress Poetics.
Art & Research
Press · Articles & conversations
Shell of the Fairytale · Runner Detroit
Conversation with Hannah Maria Schmutterer and Isabella Nimmo, conducted by Ashley Cook · 13 September 2024.
The conversation explores the Detroit exhibition, the making of hand sewn textile works and the dress as a meeting point for folklore, memory and women’s histories of labour.
Read the conversation · Runner Detroit