Lucia Antonia Kempe - Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle

Gibt es ein Leben vor dem Tod? – Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle

Drawing on a personal archive of documentary fragments and biographical accounts of her parents, Lucia Antonia
Kempe reflects on the representation and relevance of left-wing protest movements of the 1990s in today’s political
climate. With the question: “Is there a life before death?”, she formulates the phrase: “There is a life before death”,
which appears frequently in the archive. In this way, the designer engages in dialogue with her parents and, navigating
between memory and the present, explores the passing on of political responsibility in the face of the shift to the right
in Germany. The collection conceives of clothing as a medium of political resistance and remembrance.The collection is
guided by three narrative strands. The archive, as a glimpse into the past, forms the starting point of the collection. To
create the archive, memoirs were written, interviews conducted and years-old articles searched for in a newspaper
archive.Christian Morgenstern’s ‘Moon Sheep’ as a reflection of the tensions between hope and powerlessness in
everyday life. The figure of the Moon Sheep was inspired by a series of sculptures by Lucia’s father. The poem
prompted further research into sheep, flocks and domestication. And raised the question: How do we make our living
space worth living in? The final narrative thread is protest as a unifying force for the generation, forming a call to stand
up and take action.

Lucia Antonia Kempe completed her bachelor’s degree in the summer of 2025 at Burg Giebichenstein University of
Art and Design Halle, in the Department of Fashion Design. After graduating, she moved to Stockholm to complete an
internship at the sustainable fashion label Hodakova, where she now works as a design assistant. Before earning her
bachelor’s degree, Lucia worked at various fashion and design labels, including Carla Fernandez and Living
Architecture Systems. In her own practice, Lucia views design as a means of questioning the status quo and seeks to
critically examine social structures and processes through her work. Her work focuses on research and experimentation
without the pretense of providing answers, but rather on a process-oriented approach that allows viewers to become
part of the research. Lucia recognizes fashion as a system in urgent need of change. Her aim is to design and produce
garments ethically and made from more sustainable materials. She sees it as the responsibility of emerging designers to
respond to the multifaceted crises to which our industry contributes due to fashion’s overproduction, unsustainable
manufacturing, or the constant speed of newness in our cycles leading to overconsumption.

Fotografie: Mona Ortner @luxuswasser
Fotografie Assistenz:
Annabell Eckmann @annabel____
Luzi reuleux @lueaux
H&M: Liv Rigmor Gosdschick @zwischenunmensch
Models:
Hannah Zoe Götschl @hannahzzzzoe
Anna Fenja Kuhlmann @annafenja
Lisa Schumann @lis4_s
Linus Wittkamp @wemoryyy
Max Böhlen @maggsimiliam
Alfred Cyranka @cyndholz