Material moorings

HÅNDVÆRK bookazine issue 3. It is sold out in English, but the Danish edition is still available here.
If you would like to read or reread the articles online, as a service, I have posted them here and here

Dorte Bo Bojesen is CEO of Form/Design Center.
Previously, she was head of design for the textile company Svensson and director of studies at the University of Borås, Swedish School of Textiles and at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design, in Copenhagen.

Form/Design Center Malmö sprang from Svensk Form (the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design), which was founded in 1945. Only much later, in 1964, did Form/Design Center get its own location. The centre is operated by the non-profit association Svensk Form Syd (South) and is supported by funding from the Ministry of Culture, the City of Malmö, Region Skåne and the Swedish Arts Council.

Den Permanente was a cooperative sales and exhibition venue for Danish crafts and applied art founded in 1931. A key figure in the establishment of Den Permanente was Kay Bojesen, whom you can read about on page xx.

The sales exhibition near Vesterport station in central Copenhagen sold the members’ works. Exhibits were curated by a selection committee elected by the members. The co-op was disbanded in 1981. After this time, the name was used by a shop selling Danish craft objects.

A hop, skip and a jump from Copenhagen lies Form/Design Center, a venue for architecture, form and design in southern Sweden. An institution that plays an important role for Sweden’s professional crafts, design and architecture scene and for the end users.

Form/Design Center is a setting for exhibitions and workshop events, knowledge development and sharing, a café that also serves as a reading room and a shop with a curated selection of crafts and design products.

‘This is a time of transformation for us,’ CEO Dorte Bo Bojesen explains when I meet with her for a guided tour of Form/Design Center. We are in an old granary at Malmö’s Lilla torg. ‘In many ways, the current time is not dissimilar to the time when Form/Design Center was in the making here in Sweden, and Den Permanente was founded in Copenhagen. A time when Jugendstil or the Scandinavian variant, skønvirke, gave way to functionalism. Today, the dream of mindless mass production is giving way to a sustainable approach to design, production and consumption. We should and will play a role in that negotiation process.’

To understand her point, one needs to understand that the shift from skønvirke to functionalism was not just an aesthetic turn but was more about an ideological shift linked with a social focus and the development of the welfare society as we know it today. Similarly, we need to understand that sustainability is not about a particular stylistic direction but about the foundations of everything we do.

In our collective consumerist delirium, we have for the past many years gradually produced more and more in poorer and poorer quality, farther and farther away. As informed consumers, as informed designers, we now know that this is a potentially deadly slippery slope.

The condition for change is knowledge, and knowledge begins in childhood. Form/Design Center works closely with regional schools to help children learn about materials and form in preparation of becoming conscious, critical consumers and, in some cases, to sow the seed of a future design career.

‘For the professional designers, a condition for turning the tide is that we return to a materials-driven design and product development process,’ says Dorte. ‘Without a real grasp of materials and production methods and without production facilities, we become unmoored and lose the basis for what we used to be proud of: our design.’

In connection with the Stockholm Design Week in 2020, I was introduced to S-P-O-K (samtida produktion och konsumtion; contemporary production and consumption). S-P-O-K is a digital platform that lists local production facilities, from small craft companies capable of making prototypes or handling small-scale production to bigger companies capable of industrial production.

S-P-O-K was founded by designer Jenny Nordberg and is now operated by Project Manager Anna Gudmundsdottir of Form/Design Center in Malmö.

S-P-O-K began as a local initiative and has now, thanks to the Swedish government’s ambition of promoting production in Sweden, received funds to continue its development and expand to become a national service. In addition to the digital platform, S-P-O-K is also developing a physical materials collection. The collection is housed at Form/Design Center in Malmö; I can see it as I speak with Dorte.

After our conversation we take a tour of the building. I enjoy the interesting exhibitions on display, including the travelling exhibition Ung Svensk Form (Young Swedish Design), which has previously been shown in Stockholm and goes on to visit the Utopia gallery in Umeå and Röhsska Museum of Design and Craft in Gothenburg this autumn. Another treat is the selection in the shop; in addition to books and magazines, the products all come from local craft makers and manufacturers. When I express my enthusiasm, Dorte says, ‘On the one hand, we don’t want to encourage consumption, certainly not overconsumption, and on the other hand, we do want to demonstrate that it is possible to make conscious and quality-driven choices, and the best way to do that is to look to our local community.’

I conclude my visit in the café with cup and cake while browsing through the international magazine View on Colour.

#bookazine3

#bookazine3_2

FAKTA:

Dorte Bo Bojesen er administrerende direktør på Form/Design Center.

Hun har tidligere blandt andet været designchef for tekstilvirksomheden Svensson og studierektor ved Borås Textilhögskola og på Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademis Skoler for Arkitektur, Design og Konservering, KADK.

Form/Design Center Malmö tager afsæt i foreningen Svensk Form, som blev etableret i 1945. Først langt senere, i 1964, fik Form/Design Center en fast adresse.

Centeret drives af non-profitorganisationen Svensk Form Syd med støtte fra Kulturdepartementet, Malmö stad, Region Skåne og Statens kulturråd.

Den Permanente var et kooperativt ledet salgs- og udstillingssted for dansk kunsthåndværk og kunstindustri, som blev etableret i 1931. En af dem, som var aktive omkring etableringen af Den Permanente, var Kay Bojesen.

Fra salgsudstillingen ved Vesterport i København solgtes medlemmernes arbejder efter censurering af en komité valgt af medlemmerne.
Den Permanente somkooperativ blev opløst i 1981, og navnet anvendtes derefter i en årrække af en forretning, der solgte dansk kunsthåndværk.

En smuttur fra København ligger Form/Design Center, som er mødested for arkitektur, form og design i det sydlige Sverige. En institution, som spiller en rolle, såvel i det professionelle kunsthåndværker-, design- og arkitekturmiljø i Sverige som i forholdet til slutbrugeren.

Form/Design Center danner ramme om udstillinger og workshops, om vidensudvikling og -deling, om en café, som samtidig fungerer som læsesal, og en butik med et kurateret udvalg af kunsthåndværk og designprodukter.

“Vi er i en brydningstid”, siger direktør Dorte Bo Bojesen, da jeg mødtes med hende på Form/Design Center for at få en rundvisning. Vi befinder os i et gammelt kornmagasin på Lilla torg i Malmö. “Tiden nu minder på mange måder om tiden, da Form/Design Center var i sin vorden her i Sverige, og Den Permanente blev etableret i København. En tid, hvor jugend, eller den skandinaviske variant skønvirke, veg for funktionalismen. I dag viger drømmen om ukritisk masseproduktion for en bæredygtig approach til design, produktion og forbrug. Vi skal og vil spille en rolle i den forhandlingsproces.”

Hvis man skal forstå, hvad hun mener, skal man forstå, at skiftet fra skønvirke til funktionalisme ikke bare var et spørgsmål om æstetik, men nok så meget var et ideologisk skifte koblet til en social indsats og til opbygning af velfærdssamfundet, som vi kender det i dag. På samme måde skal vi forstå, at bæredygtighed ikke handler om en bestemt stilmæssig retning, men om hele forudsætningen.

I vores kollektive forbrugsrus har vi de seneste mange år, i en glidende udvikling, produceret mere og mere, i dårligere og dårligere kvalitet, længere og længere borte. Som oplyste forbrugere, som oplyste ormgivere ved vi nu, at det er en livsfarlig glidebane.

Forudsætningen for forandring er viden, og viden tager afsæt i børnehøjde. Form/Design Center arbejder tæt sammen med regionens skoler for at sikre, at børnene klædes på til at forstå materialer og form for derigennem at blive bevidste, kritiske forbrugere og for nogles vedkommende med det resultat, at der sås en spire til en kommende formgiver.

“For de professionelle formgivere er det en afgørende forudsætning for at vende udviklingen, at vi vender tilbage til en materialeforankret design- og produktudviklingsproces”, siger Dorte. “Uden kendskab til materialer og fremstillingsmetoder, uden produktionsfaciliteter, slipper vi vores forankring og mister forudsætningen for det, vi engang var stolte over, vores design.”

I forbindelse med Stockholm Design Week 2020 blev jeg introduceret til S-P-O-K (samtida produktion och konsumtion). S-P-O-K er en digital platform, som lister lokale produktionsfaciliteter fra den helt lille håndværksvirksomhed, som kan lave prototyper eller producere i meget lille skala, til den noget større, som bemestrerindustriel produktion.

S-P-O-K er grundlagt af designeren Jenny Nordberg og drives nu af projektleder Anna Gudmundsdottir fra Form/Design Center i Malmö.

S-P-O-K startede som et lokalt initiativ og har nu, med afsæt i den svenske regerings ønske om at styrke forudsætningerne for produktion i Sverige, fået midler til at videreudvikle og udvide til at blive landsdækkende.

S-P-O-K er foruden den digitale platform en fysisk materialesamling under opbygning, denne samling findes i Form/Design Center i Malmö, den har jeg udsigt til, mens jeg taler med Dorte.

Efter vores samtale går vi en runde i huset. Jeg glædes over fine udstillinger, herunder vandreudstillingen Ung Svensk Form (som tidligere har været vist i Stockholm, i efteråret vises den i Umeå på galleri Utopia og i Göteborg på Röhsska museet), og over vareudbuddet i butikken – produkter, som foruden bøger og tidsskrifter alle kommer fra lokale kunsthåndværkere og producenter. Jeg deler min begejstring, og Dorte siger: “Vi vil jo på den ene side ikke tilskynde til forbrug eller i al fald ikke til overforbrug, på den anden side vil vi gerne formidle, at det er muligt at træffe bevidste og kvalitative valg, og det gør vi bedst ved at tage lokalt afsæt.”

Jeg slutter af i cafeen med kaffe, kage og med at bladre i det internationale tidsskrift View on Colour.