Lia Forslund

Visit Sweden: Swedish Design Moves

During the Swedish Design Week, the exhibition ‘Swedish Design Moves’ took place in a baroque palace, presenting an incongruous display of future ideas in an eighteen century setting, curated by Form Us With Love.

On a mission by the governmental body ‘Visit Sweden’ the design studio was asked to create an installation showing a selection of Swedish architecture, design and fashion that would answer the question ‘where?’ Swedish design was moving.

The reply became a paired down, human, processed focused arrangement, based on prototypes made by twelve Swedish architects and designers, sharing their work in progress and visions into the future—including works from, Monica Förster, Clara von Zweigbergk, Tengbom Architects, Gipp Arkitektur, Marge Arkitekter, Houdini, Hope and Teenage engineering.

‘We wanted to create a peek into the ‘midst process’ and the raw. A deliberate contrast, to the baroque setting,’ John Löfgren, Creative Director at Form Us With Love explains.

Providing physical ideations —as oppose to products—revealed a gathered sense of where Swedish Design is heading but also displayed methods of future advancement. The clash between the crafted now and the polished past became a central theme in the exhibition, as many works on display illustrated a significant shift towards an almost artful curiosity.

‘A basic, LED lit, industrial shelving system, is as minimal as you can get. And it is precisely what we wanted. We knew that all prototypes would be different to one another and therefore came up with a pragmatic way to house the work, celebrating their own individual way—from small sized objects to large scale hanging garments,’ says Jonas Pettersson, CEO at Form Us With Love.

Open for a mere evening, the exhibition brought the architects and designers close to the international audience by dialogue and engagement. With all the prototypes, products and ideas up for testing and debate, the contrasting environment invited to an accessible experience in a palace normally closed for the public. ‘Swedish Design Moves’ at Tessinska became a perfect example of a tool to reconsider what progress might mean, incorporating learning from each other’s future realities.