In 2004, she founded her label esther perbandt, was nominated for various fashion awards, placed second on Heidi Klum’s show “Making The Cut,” and appeared as a designer and guest judge on “Germany’s Next Top Model.” Her interests extend far beyond fashion design: her fashion shows—including those at Berlin’s Volksbühne—were immersive, performative experiences rather than traditional presentations. The central theme of her work is the idea of infinity, embodied by the color black.  

 In 2018, she created her first large-scale textile-based painting (1.5 x 2 m), which now hangs in the offices of the Fashion Council Germany. Since 2020, she has exhibited artistic works annually at the Positions Berlin art fair. In her four-day performance in September 2025, she wore a chameleon-like full-body costume and combed, sorted, and untangled a network of black cotton strips—a physical and meditative exploration of structure and chaos.  

 The video recording of this performance will be on view during the openart Lausitz Biennale.  

Work Title: ORDER / DISORDER

In ORDER / DISORDER, Esther Perbandt makes her own body part of the installation. The work consists of a textile environment made up of 500 black cotton strips, each five meters long, which were originally woven into a dense, orderly structure.

Over the course of a four-day performance, the artist became part of this installation. Through repetitive actions—arranging, separating, untangling, letting go—the work shifts between control and dissolution. Order disintegrates into disorder, only to reform once more. In this process, the body becomes both a tool and an integral part of the material. A large-format video projection documents this physical and mental process and is part of the installation.

For the 1st openart Lausitz Biennale, ORDER / DISORDER will be presented as an installation and, as a one-time event, as a four-hour live performance. In this performance, the artist once again physically engages with the textile structure and continues the process of order, dissolution, and reformation directly on site.