Although the Stockholm Furniture Fair is the center of Stockholm Design Week, there are plenty of venues and events around the city showcasing an immense amount of talent For this third, and much delayed installment, we’ll have a look at the some of these events including the Örnsberg Auction, Cray Collective and We Live Here.
In just a few years Örnsberg Auction has become the most important and most publicized event during Stockholm Design Week next to the Fair itself. The auction has established itself as a premiere showcase of contemporary studio craft and self-produced design with a particular, but not exclusive, focus on emerging nordic designers. The three founders Simon Klenell, Kristoffer Sundin, and Fredrik Paulsen are themselves prolific designers and craftsmen and contributors to the auction. The purpose of the auction is to provide a platform for craft and design that for various reasons does not fit into current industrial regime. The auction also provides an alternative distribution platform with a higher degree of transparency between the maker and the end-consumer. The 2015 auction was perhaps the most well curated edition of the auction so far, the viewing held in an unassuming exhibition space and included, except for the founding troika, makers and designers such as Lagombra (trans. roughly into “good enough”) pseudonym for Anders Jakobsen’s radical-craft project, Tove Greitz and Dennis Graben, both participating with pine furniture, and while Greitz has been featured in publications such as Frame and Wallpaper, Graben is probably lesser known but should definitely be kept an eye upon. Jenny Nordberg‘s mirrors and Marjan van Aubel’s Moonlight are indicative of both designers commitment to material exploration and open ended processes. Another familiar but perhaps surprising name is veteran designer Mats Theselius, present with an impossibly long/wide (360cm) wall mounted desktop. Pre-bidding was accepted during the viewing, but the actual auction was held in Örnsberg as an evening sale with traditional off-line bidding.
In another part of the city Cray Collective held a studio exhibition in their new studio/office space. All members are recent graduates of Beckmans College of Design and engaged in graphic, product and interior design as well as fashion and art projects. It’s a truly assertive and diverse showcase that CC put together, and it seems significant that several members, Dennis Graben, Amanda Karsberg, Lotta Lampa, Andreas Freienholt and Lisa Berkert Wallard were represented at this year’s Örnsberg Auction. Lotta Lampa’s new collection containing a mirror, pedestal and candleholder, plays with assumptions of hi- and low culture. Andreas Freienholt’s cartoonish MDF tables challenge commonly held views on authenticity. The seemingly cryptic works of Amanda Karsberg & Dennis Graben use particular materials to reinterpret forms and volumes that follow their own logic. This is the second year the collective stage an exhibition for the Stockholm Design Week and we are no doubt looking forward to next year’s exhibit.
We Live Here was another interesting off-campus initiative to show design and craft in a more domestic setting. Around 70 (or so, by our count) nordic designers crammed into one flat under supervision of Design Forum Finland and Iceland Design Center. The project contained many familiar names such as TAF, Monica Förster, Färg & Blanche, Mika Tolvanen, Studio Greiling, Iina Vourivirta to name just a few, and there were a lot of (for us) new acquaintances to be made such as Martin Born, Mari Isopahkala, Choice, Tinna Gunnarsdottir and the list goes on.
Around the corner from We Live Here, the Finnish Institute held two exhibitions, one dedicated to the works of Harri Koskinen and the other to Beacon Helsinki, a network of young and emerging creatives. Koskinen hardly needs any introduction, despite being born only in 1970 he has already had long a prolific career, based on his particular understanding and interpretation of the Scandinavian form tradition.
Beacon Helsinki featured Sebastian Jansson‘s indoor gardening pots with LED lights, Mottowasabi‘s idiosyncratic solutions and Timo Ripattis’s more formal designs.
Finally: Øivind Slatto’s Giant Diamond lamp outside Skånegatan 70.
