Beckmans College: Swedish Style Hidden in Bric-a-brac

(adam štěch) Even though this is not a new project, I have, however, just realized how good it is. At this year’s Design Week in Stockholm, Beckman College and its students presented the 1 + 1 = 3 exhibition, which showed furniture pieces designed by young designers in a very unusual manner. Among the smart bric-a-brac, one could find pure wooden furniture that is typical from the young contemporary Scandinavian scene.

A group of third-year students of product design joined their second-year younger schoolmates from the department of graphic design (not to create a duo, but a trifecta of talented designers). Their symbiosis resulted in a very fascinating outcome that failed to follow mathematical laws. Visitors could slowly discover mostly wooden furniture creations in an extraordinary installation full of ordinary objects. A globe, a keyboard, a dartboard, and a colorful umbrella created a spatial op-art game. A closer look at the installation highlighted the graphic quality of the exhibition; objects placed together with the exhibited furniture created the spatial headline of the 1 + 1 = 3 exhibition.

However, the installation itself does not surpass the quality of the exhibited objects. Young Swedish designers have carried on the design of simple, mostly wooden furniture, for which lightness and subtlety are typical. The students presented a homogenous style that proves the quality of young contemporary Scandinavian design. The “adherent” chairs by Sandra Gustafsson, as well as the little chair by Evelina Johansson, which is partly made from wooden balls, both represent delicate Nordic poetics typical for many contemporary Scandinavian female designers. Other works by Asa Agertsam, Karin Widmark, Daniel Svahn, and Helena Svensson apply pure wood, basic shapes, and several innovative functional solutions, such as the adjustable leg length of the Move On Up bench designed by Helena Svensson.

Thus, the exhibition as a whole invites visitors on a small tour of younger Swedish design, which was not presented in a sterile “ordinary” installation, but in a live environment of a very distinctive and visually surprising exhibition.

The author is the Dolce Vita editor.

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