The Re-Framing Danish Design exhibition contains two very different takes on Danish design, one is cool and analytical, the other intuitive and irreverent, some might even say profane.
Organized by Frame Magazine and DanishTM, Re-Framing Danish Design invited Sebastian Herkner (DE) and Niek Pulles (NL) aka Heyniek to interpret 10 pieces from the Danish design canon, from Kaare Klint’s Safari Chair to Julien de Smedt’s Stacked for Muuto, via Mogensen’s J39 Chair and Jacobsen’s Tongue Chair to Cecilie Manz’s Caravaggio pendant (complete list below).
Sebastian Herkner’s Increasing Details is a methodological study of the ideas and principles of Danish design and how they manifest themselves. Herkner identifies a number of key concepts, such as simplicity, craftsmanship and functionality, concentrating on one aspect in each of the pieces. To guide the visitor through the designs Herkner has constructed steel frames with integrated magnifying lenses highlighting crucial details of each design. For the J39 shaker chair Herkner turns the attention to the weaved papercord seat, for the Series 7 the layers of the plywood and for the Fiber Chair the fine pieces of fiber in the composite material. In Herkner’s view these furnitures represent, respectively, the craftsmanship, functionally and sustainability of Danish design while Caravaggio represents simplicity, Stacked modularity and the Safari Chair poetry.
Niek Pulles’ pieces on the other hand, display the most benevolent form of disrespect since Martino Gamper’s renovation of Kunsthal Charlottenborg’s café. Contrary to Herkner’s analytical approach, Pulles’ is intuitive and tactile, almost corporeal, oscillating between graphic and product design, fashion and art. Many of the pieces follow an associative logic like the transformation of Hans Bølling’s classic tray table for Brdr. Krüger into Tuk Tuk Monster Truck Table – Vavoom or the frozen look of the wax covered J39. The Flocked Up version of the Fiber Chair is perhaps the most subtle piece, covering the fiber texture of the seat with flock fibers. The rigorous Montana system is deconstructed and rebuilt as the freestanding Razzle Dazzle, an anarchistic interpretation, twisting and turning the modules into new volumes.
Re-Framing Danish Design will be shown at Copenhagen’s Northmodern A/W 2015 but was initially held at the Silo, the massive concrete monolith standing astride the sprawling urban development project at Nordhavn.
The featured items: Hans Bølling Tray Table Brdr. Krüger, Kaare Klint Safari Chair Carl Hansen & Søn, Søren Rose Studio Plateau DK3, Børge Mogensen J39 for Fredericia Furniture, Arne Jacobsen 7 Series chair Fritz Hansen, Arne Jacobsen Tongue Chair HOWE, Cecilie Manz Caravaggio Lightyears, Montana system Montana, Iskos-Berlin Fiber chair Muuto, Zilmers Nordic Antique wallpaper