The Museum Bärengasse, where the Kunsthalle Zürich has been temporarily located, is a highly unusual building for a contemporary art gallery: there is no stylistic cohesion, and the interior is a confusing labyrinth of tiny chambers with elaborate panelling, decorative stucco, and prominent ceramic stoves.

In this quasi-domestic setting, the exhibition Town-Gown Conflict brought together Lucy McKenzie, Verena Dengler, Lucile Desamory, Caitlin Keogh, Beca Lipscombe, pelican avenue, and Elizabeth Radcliffe to explore textiles by both artists and designers whose works of art and so-called applied art raise issues relating to social formatting.

For the purposes of the exhibition, textiles are defined as encompassing fashion – both industrial and produced by hand – and the craft practices of tapestry weaving, embroidery, and printed textiles.

English and German text.