"My work was... How would I put it?", asks Yrjö Kukkapuro. "Constant contemplation" he answers.1 With the exhibition Yrjö Kukkapuro – Magic Room Espoo Museum of Modern Art, EMMA, invite us all to contemplate on Yrjö Kukkapuro's contemplations....... Yrjö Kukkapuro - Magic Room, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, EMMA Born in Vyborg, then Finland, now Russia, on April 6th 1933 Yrjö Kukkapuro enrolled in 1955 at the Institute of Industrial Art, Helsinki, a school, then, housed in the city's
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"How did I end up going to technical school?" asked once the Finnish architect Wivi Lönn, rhetorically, "I had building in my blood, and it pulled me in."1 With the exhibition Long Live Wivi Lönn! the Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki, help elucidate not only how that innate urge expressed itself, but also that for all the apparent ease contained in Lönn's account of an innate urge being followed, for a Wivi Lönn, and for the great many Wivi Lönn's over the past 200 years, it wasn't
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"March is the Month of Expectation. The things we do not know", opined once the American poet Emily Dickinson.1 Easily enough resolved!!! And no, not by "Persons of prognostication", whom one should definitely always "show becoming firmness"; but by visiting an architecture or design exhibition and approaching that which you don't know via your own inquiry and questioning and reasoning. Our five recommended locations for transforming expectations into knowledge in March 2023 can be found in
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As here in the northern hemisphere winter cedes to spring, not only is nature once again reawakening from its long repose but so too is the international museum community; and that, one senses, with more vigour than in the most recent springs where the Covid pandemic induced upsetting of the established order of the museal ecosystem, through both enforced closures and fundamental disruptions of essential exhibition development processes, dimmed somewhat the promise of the annual spring blush.
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Hygge A Curse; A Malediction; A Torment As the runes in the Caves of Lego record, ever since the reign of the post-Viking autocrat King Mark Edsføring, furniture, lighting, textile and accessory design in Denmark has endured a great many trials as varied and various forces have sought to use them to their advantage, have sought to employ furniture, lighting, textile and accessory design in Denmark for their own benefit rather than letting furniture, lighting, textile and accessory design in
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Cranbrook An Alma Mater; An Academy of Art; A colony of experimentation Cranbrook Academy of Art arose on the Cranbrook Estate, a private fiefdom nestling quietly in a forest glade to the north of the contemporary Detroit ruled by the Booth dynasty; and a fiefdom which in the Age of George and Ellen of Booth developed from an agrarian farm into a garden of creativity. As the Cranbrook Scrolls record, George of Booth was a devotee of The Artsandcrafts, a movement most popularly embodied by
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Having started this Bauhaus Weimar centenary year by exploring the path from Arts and Crafts to Bauhaus, the Bröhan Museum Berlin end this Bauhaus Weimar centenary year by exploring the path from Bauhaus to Arts and Crafts Scandinavia. Or more accurately put, by exploring Nordic Design. The Response to the Bauhaus. Nordic Design. The Response to the Bauhaus at the Bröhan Museum, Berlin As this Bauhaus Weimar centenary year winds down and Bauhaus mania fades, or at least until 2026 when
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In centuries past traditions were something that were established slowly, often becoming such long after those who had began them, who had understood their origins, meaning and function in contemporary society, had shuffled off this mortal coil; in our contemporary world traditions arrive over night, no-one having the patience to wait, no-one wanting to miss out on anything. In which sense, celebrating in 2019 its second edition, our traditional 3daysofdesign Copenhagen #embassytour. As
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As any fule kno, an echo requires a surface off which to reflect. Otherwise it is just shouting into the void. With the exhibition Echoes - 100 Years in Finnish Design and Architecture at the Felleshus, Berlin, that reflective surface is the traditions, cultures and landscapes of north-east Europe. Echoes - 100 Years in Finnish Design and Architecture @ Felleshus, The Nordic Embassies, Berlin On December 6th 1917 the Finnish Republic declared its independence from Russia, an event that
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"Father of Eero....." So or similar is in many circles the accepted form for referring to the Finnish architect and urban planner Eliel Saarinen. A highly unsatisfactory term of reference and one which in many respects denies and defames how much more there is and was to the man and his talents. Eliel Saarinen (1873-1950) Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen was born on August 20th 1873 in the remote eastern Finnish town of Rantasalmi where his father served as a Lutheran pastor. In 1875 Eliel's father
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We at the (smow)blog aren't above making advertising form others. If we feel that something passes to our remit, we go with it. Crazy as we are. And so it was with great interest that we heard about "Scandinavian Design: Discover form and function" the latest travel guide from Scandline Ferries. We've never actually set foot on a Scandline's ferry ourselves, but the idea of sailing around Denmark and Sweden while learning a little more about the design tradition and future perspectives in
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