Poster design by Lisa Oluasson
Design Archive as a Map, Design by Evelina Mohei
Through arguing the importance of place in understanding design, as something that must be based on the specific knowledges and agency of local cultures, (Re-)learning the Archive has tried a different way of operating as a design archive. It is a design archive that does not have a specific location, but rather is a map that stitches together different places, museums and diverse perspectives. In that way, the whole of Småland becomes a potential design archive. This map is just the beginning of what such an archive could look like.
Thank you, Forest!
MADAM snickeri & restaurering
MADAM’s work in cabinetmaking prioritises sustainability, an approach that requires them to constantly re-evaluate the many preconceived ideas they encounter in their everyday work. By focusing on high-quality craftsmanship, they challenge the prevailing industrial perspectives on wood, and bring historical structures to light.
The Weaving House
Kalmar läns Hemslöjd
Together with Kalmar läns Hemslöjd we want to highlight the weaving house, an important creative space in the Småland countryside. The map is made by embroiderer Ann Rydh who has created it with fabric samples from various weaving houses and weavers from Småland.
Models for Furniture Ornaments
Sandsjö Hembygdsförening
These models were used to create ornaments on some of the furniture that was manufactured at Svenska Möbelfabrikerna in Bodafors during the 1940s and 1950s. Through a combination of machining and sculpting craft, it was possible to produce budget variants of the otherwise exclusive style furniture. Furniture decorations could therefore become available even to those less well off – ornaments for all!
In the exhibition we also show a casket by factory worker Aron Johansson.
Unfortunately not participating in the exhibition at the Form/Design Center.
Wire Craft
Hönsalottas Luffarmuseum
In this vagabond museum we get to meet some of the itinerant people who wandered the paths and roads of Småland and beyond, seeking to make a living. These were people who, for various reasons, spent a great deal of time on the roads, living in temporary housing and earning a living by, for instance, wire crafting objects.
Bräv
Rosa Tolnov Clausen & Daniele Burlando
Bräv is a proposal for an independent quarterly magazine. The name bräv is a portmanteu of the Swedish words ”brev” (letter) and “väv” (weave), which tells both about the magazine’s format – one page, one letter – as well as that its content is about cultures around weaving and the weaving house. The picture show one of the weaving houses Tolnov Clausen and Burlando visited during their residency project.
Mended Clothing
Dädesjö Hembygdsförening
The garments from Dädesjö Hembygdsförening, the local heritage museum, fine textile collection tell of a time when textiles were exclusive. These are clothes that are rare to see today because few of them have been collected and preserved. The garments have been mended many times and have been taken care of in order to last a long time – it was expensive to get new ones.
Unfortunately not participating in the exhibition at the Form/Design Center.
GALON
Studio Goja with children from Hagbyskolan and Madesjöskolan
In the place investigative newspaper GALON, we get the latest news from the children’s Södermöre and Nybro. Through the newspaper’s different editorials, from politics and culture to sports and comics, the children reflect on their places from various interests and perspectives.
In the Kingdom of Crystal – the People, the Environment, the Future
& Annika Elmqvist
Annika Elmqvist’s illustrations on glass portrays different aspects of the project In the Kingdom of Crystal – the People, the Environment, the Future. The project, which was carried out in 1978–1983 at the initiative of adult-education society ABF in Lessebo and Nybro together with the Swedish Factory Workers’ Union’s departments 2, 44 and 122, is an important forerunner in terms of extended design historiography in Småland.
Frigger-making, Glass Art & Pyrography
Tuomo Nieminen
Tuomo Nieminen is one of Sweden’s leading glass sculptors who has worked as a master glassmaker at the Bergdala and Kosta glassworks. For a period, he was unable to blow glass in the workshop, and so he began to create “drawings” using a hot iron on wood. In the exhibition his wooden pictures are shown together with some of his own glass production, his curious and experimental frigger-making. Nieminen has also made (Re-)learning the Archive’s wooden icon.
Resande Romani
The Frantzwagner Society
Resande Romani have a long and well documented history in Småland even though such traces are not visible today. It is a narrative that is so tightly interconnected with life in the countryside – maybe that’s why it’s hard to distinguish? To bring these at the same time Swedish and Romani narratives to life we have collaborated with the Frantzwagner Society.
Geographies of Cups
Makda Embaie
Perhaps the home is the most extensive design archive? In Makda Embaie’s residency project Geographies of Cups she studies a service that was part of her home, a beloved service that was used on special occasions such as birthdays.
Hotel Al Rasheed
The story of the spectacular Hotel Al Rasheed, which was built by Skanska in Kalmar in 1978–1982, is a complex and unwritten Swedish-Iraqi design history of top-quality design, world politics and war.
Read more about our previous exhibition Hotel Al Rasheed and Orrefors.
Designarkivet
Designarkivet’s extensive collection tells you about the individual professional designer’s practice and creative processes, but also about the design industry in Sweden. Several of the producers who supplied Hotel Al Rasheed are represented in the collection, many of which are well-known from the Swedish design history.
On Hospitality
Magnus Bärtås & Behzad Khosravi Noori
In On Hospitality an experiment is carried out that could be called necromancy: a dead person is made to speak to the living about the past. In the work, we meet Layla Al-Attar (1944–1993), an Iraqi artist who talks about Hotel Al Rasheed and what it means to be a guest of the power.
