News and thoughts on a November day
November 2025
Most of my waking hours right now are spent finishing text and images for the next HÅNDVÆRK bookazine, which comes out in March 2026.
This time, theme is master-apprentice relationships in various constellations and professional fields.
My work on this topic was kick-started with a special issue of HÅNDVÆRK commissioned by Copenhagen Hospitality College. In cooperation with the Tuborg Foundation, the college runs an ambitious project titled Gejst – a Danish word that might best be translated as ‘passion’ or ‘spirit’. The project revolves around learning from the best and most dedicated masters.
The special issue is for the college’s own use and is not for sale to the general public, but in bookazine 14, you can meet a couple of the masters – true nerds in the best sense of the word.
Here you can read the introduction to the special edition – an interview with Johan K. Dal, project head for Gejst.
During a break in between two chapters for bookazine 14, I went to see an exhibition.
One of the participants in this year’s Biennale for Craft & Design at the Glas museum in Ebeltoft, near Aarhus, is Marie Holst, who weaves tapestries.
Until 3 January 2026, her works are also on display in her solo exhibition The Garden at the Etage Projects gallery in Borgergade in central Copenhagen.
I visited the exhibition the day after the opening and met with Marie.
We spoke about both her artistic practice and the craft involved, with craft as our starting point. She weaves on a manually operated digital loom. Her pieces in the exhibition were woven partly at the Danish Art Workshops and partly in Norway, the latter as part of the Norwegian textile factory Innvik’s artist programme, Vevft (which you can read about here).
Marie views the digital loom as a democratization of narrative textile tradition of tapestry making. In the past, tapestries took years to weave by hand and were the reserve of the wealthy. ‘It’s interesting,’ she says, ‘that you can now use this medium to tell different types of stories than the ones that have historically been expressed in woven tapestries.’
Marie’s narratives take their starting point in nature.
Like the rest of us, she is deeply concerned about the poly-crisis we are currently facing. Not least, she is worried about the biodiversity and climate crises, and she uses her artistic practice to highlight all the beauty that is present in nature as well as the grotesque character of the way in which we take possession of all living things and subjugate them to our own wants and desires.
In the current exhibition, she addresses the microcosm of the garden in works that are beautiful at first glance but prove both thought-provoking and disturbing upon closer inspection. Hopefully, her pieces will spark reflection and inspire both a new understanding and a change in behaviour.
With just over a week left before the First Sunday in Advent …
… my dreams have begun to turn to Christmas gifts. Maybe yours have too – do I need to mention that I think you should choose your gifts carefully? Probably not, I’m sure you do.
But if you are open to a piece of advice that you did not ask for, remember that what you invest in can flourish and grow.
Naturally, my recommendation is that you give HÅNDVÆRK bookazines – or a subscription for future issues of the bookazine – both to the people in your circle who have already ‘seen the light’ and to the ones you would like to give a gentle nudge.
Here you can find a set of the four latest issues at a special price.
Here you can buy a subscription that begins with bookazine 14, which comes out in March
– remember, a subscription is the gift that keeps on giving.
To buy individual back issues, go here.
Coffee break
Apropos of books as gifts:
The book Kaffekoppen [The Coffee Cup; in Danish only] is the product of a co-creative project initiated by textile designer and paper artist Gitte Lægård and carried out by 55 women from all over the Nordic region, myself included.
Gitte is on a mission to study the value of co-creation, also in online communities; a theme that ties in with the many museum exhibitions in recent years that involve and engage the public – you can read more participatory exhibitions here.
The women’s contributions, Gitte’s reflections on the project and a foreword by textile designer and sustainability and design researcher Anne Louise Bang are presented in a small, handy book. If you would like to get your hands on it, you can ">order KAFFEKOPPEN here.
Is there such a thing as being too thorough?
I think there is. Or, rather, maybe you do not need to share every single fact you collected with your readers.
For the past month, the book BrugsKunst (Decorative Art; in Danish only) has been on my bedside table.
It is actually too heavy and unwieldy for reading in bed. The text itself is also a heavy read, and the selection of images is fairly uninteresting, with a few beautiful colour photos and many old black-and-white photos that might have been interesting, at least some of them, but which are presented with a rose-coloured filter that makes them annoying to look at.
The cover promises a look at FDB (Confederation of Danish Manufacturing and Retail Cooperatives; now Coop Denmark) and the organization’s cultural mission and engagement in interior design, architecture, decorative art, packaging, posters, furniture and art.
However, in delivering on this promise, it virtually leaves no stone unturned. The author, Emeritus Associate Professor Jørn Guldberg, is painstakingly thorough and includes everything from the developments leading up to the establishment of the first manufacturing and retail co-ops in 1850–1896, including the political and labour market situation during this period, to facts about the Danish furniture designers and their mutual relations. The book concludes with a description and a discussion of FDB furniture then and now.
I grew up with FDB furniture, so I had positive expectations of this book. Nevertheless, I must admit that after a few chapters I began to lose interest, and even though I really made an effort, I found myself unable to give the book the thorough read it deserves. I have now moved it off my bedside table and onto the bookshelf. BrugsKunst was published by Gads Forlag.
De fleste af mine vågne timer går med at færdiggøre tekst og billeder til HÅNDVÆRK bookazine, som udkommer i marts 2026
Denne gang dykker jeg ned i mester-elev-relationer i forskellige konstellationer og fagområder.
Arbejdet med emnet har jeg kickstartet med en særudgave af HÅNDVÆRK, udgivet for Hotel- og Restaurantskolen i København, som sammen med Tuborgfondet driver et ambitiøst projekt, der hedder Gejst. Et projekt, som blandt meget andet handler om at lære af de bedste og grundigste mestre.
Særudgaven er til skolens brug og kommer ikke til salg, men et par af de virkelig interessante og nørdede mestre vil du møde i bookazine 14.
Her får du indledningen til ekstraudgaven – et interview med projektchef for Gejst, Johan K. Dal.
I en pause mellem to kapitler til bookazine 14 har jeg været på udstilling
En af de medvirkende på årets Biennale for Kunsthåndværk og Design på museet Glas i Ebeltoft er Marie Holst. Hun udtrykker sig i gobeliner.
Frem til 3. januar 2026 kan hendes arbejder desuden ses på soloudstillingen The Garden i galleri Etage Projects i Borgergade i København.
Jeg var forbi dagen efter åbningen, hvor jeg traf Marie.
Vi talte både om hendes kunstnerskab og hendes håndværk – det sidste først. Hun væver på en manuelt betjent digital væv. Værkerne på udstillingen har hun dels vævet på Statens Værksteder for Kunst i København, dels i Norge, hvor hun har samarbejdet med den norske tekstilfabrikInnviks tilbud til kunstnere – et initiativ som hedder Vevft (det kan du læse om her).
Marie taler om den digitale væv som en måde, hvorpå gobelintraditionen – en tradition for at udtrykke sig fortællende i tekstil – er blevet demokratiseret. En gang var gobeliner, som det tog år at håndvævet, forbeholdt samfundets rigeste. ”Det er interessant”, siger hun, ”at man nu kan bruge mediet til at udtrykke andre typer af fortællinger end dem man gennem historien set har vævet”.
Maries fabulerende fortællinger tager afsæt i naturen.
Hun er, ligesom os andre, dybt bekymret over den polykrise, vi befinder os midt i – ikke mindst foruroliger biodiversitets- og klimakrisen hende, og hun bruger sit kunstneriske virke til at pege på både al skønheden i naturen, men også det groteske i den måde, hvorpå vi bemægtiger os alt levende og underlægger det vores forgodtbefindende.
På den aktuelle udstilling er det havens mikrokosmos, som tages under kærlig behandling – ved første øjekast smukt, ved nærmere bekendtskab både tankevækkende og foruroligende – forhåbentlig i en grad, som både maner til eftertanke, afstedkommer et nyt blik og en ændret adfærd.
Med en god uge tilbage inden første søndag i advent –
-er mine drømme begyndt at handle om julegaver. Det gør dine måske også – behøver jeg at skrive, at jeg synes, du skal vælge dine gaver med omhu? Næppe, for det er jeg sikker på, du gør.
Hvis du alligevel vil have et råd, du ikke har bedt om – så husk, at det, du bruger dine penge på, potentielt blomstrer.
Jeg synes naturligvis, at du skal give HÅNDVÆRK bookaziner – eller et abonnement på kommende numre af bookazinet – til både de ”allerede frelste” og til dem, du gerne vil påvirke lidt.
Her finder du en gavepakke med de seneste fire numre til en fordelagtig pris.
Her kan du købe abonnementet, hvor første leverance er bookazine 14, som udkommer til marts
– et abonnement er gaven, der bliver ved med at give.
Alle numre i løssalg finder du her.
Kaffepause
Og apropos boggaver –
Den dansksprogede bog Kaffekoppen, er produktet af et samskabende projekt initieret af tekstildesigner og papirkunstner Gitte Lægård, udført af 55 kvinder fra hele Norden, inklusive undertegnede.
Gitte er på en mission, hvor hun undersøger værdien af at skabe i fællesskab – gerne i online fællesskaber. En undersøgelse, som lægger sig i forlængelse af de seneste års mange borgerinddragende museumsudstillinger – du kan læse mere om det begreb her.
De bidragsydende kvinders værker, foruden Gittes refleksioner om projektet og et forord af tekstildesigner og forsker i bæredygtighed og design Anne Louise Bang, er samlet i en lille handy bog. Hvis du vil have fingre den, ">kan KAFFEKOPPEN bestilles her.
Kan man være for grundig?
Det vil jeg nok mene – eller rettere, men behøver måske ikke indvie sine læsere i alle mellemregninger.
På mit natbord har den seneste måned ligget den ligeledes dansksprogede bog BrugsKunst.
Den er egentlig for tung og u-handy til sengelæsning. Til gengæld er den teksttung og på billedsiden, ret uinteressant med den få smukke farvebilleder, og mange gamle sort/hvid-billeder, som i sig selv kunne have være interessante, eller nogle af dem kunne – men det rosa farvefilter de er udstyret med, gør dem irriterende at se på.
Bogen lover på forsiden at handle om FDB og organisationens kulturelle mission og om indretning, arkitektur, brugsting, emballage, plakater, møbler og kunst.
Det gør den også, men den starter med Adam og Eva – eller næsten.
Forfatteren, lektor emeritus Jørn Guldberg, er virkelig grundig og indvier læseren i alt fra forhistorien forud for etableringen af de første brugsforeninger i 1850-1896, inklusive periodens politiske og arbejdsmarkedspolitiske forhold, til i de næste kapitler at dele fakta om danske møbelarkitekter og deres indbyrdes relationer. Bogen afrundes med stort og småt om FDB-møbler dengang og nu.
Jeg er vokset op med FDB-møbler og var af den årsag både positivt stemt og nysgerrig. Alligevel må jeg indrømme, at jeg efter nogle kapitler mistede koncentrationen, og selvom jeg virkelig prøvede, magter jeg ikke at læse bogen så grundigt, som den fortjener, og jeg fjerner den nu fra natbordet og lægger den på hylden. BrugsKunst er udgivet på Gads Forlag
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