Stockholm 2011: 20 designers presented their work among stuffed animals and dried plants inside the vitrines of the Biologiska museum in Stockholm last week.
Visitors ascended double spiral staircases at the centre of the building, draped with clothing by Katrin Greiling and lighting by David Taylor, before arriving at a 360-degree two-storey diorama filled with taxidermy.
Designers including Fredrik Färg and Staffan Holm presented work on the circular landings and inside glass cases.
Further pieces were on display inside the diorama itself and in the museum’s ground floor hallways, including work by Mark Braun of Germany and Florian Hauswirth of Switzerland.
The exhibition, called 20 Designers at Biologiska, was curated by French designer Emma Marga Blanche and Dutch designer Fredrik Färg in collaboration with museum director Lars-Erik Larsson and Hanna Nova Beatrice of Plaza Magazine.
Stockholm Design Week took place 7-13 February. See all our coverage of the event here »
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The information that follows is from the curators:
INTERNATIONAL DESIGN IN THE SWEDISH NATURE.
WELCOME TO A MAGICAL & DIFFERENT DESIGN EXPERIENCE IN A FANTASTIC MUSEUM.
An exhibition that is about evolution, diversity, and universality, where contemporary design, art and light is housed in an unexpected context. A magical place of historical and emotional value that creates a dialogue between the stationary artificial scenery and the always variable design stage. Curated by Fredrik Färg, Emma Marga Blanche and Hanna Nova Beatrice.
The French-born designer Emma Marga Blanche visited ”Biologiska” Museum for the first time Christmas 2009. She was immediately mesmerized by the fantastic scenery. Even the inhabitants of Stockholm know more about the outside of the Museum than the magic inside, that revealed itself for Emma like a frozen treasure of nature from 1893. The idea of showing the location to others began to germinate.
In April 2010 Emma visited the site with Fredrik Färg and met Lars-Erik Larsson, the head of the museum, who vividly described the museum and its interesting history. The idea of a design exhibition within the premises was born and Fredrik who likes anything but white boxes as the backdrop for his work engaged himself.
In the autumn of 2010, it became clear that Lars-Erik of “Biologiska” and Hanna Nova Beatrice from Plaza Magazine together with Emma and Fredrik would create the event: ”20 designers at Biologiska” at Stockholm Design Week 2011.
It includes, as its name implies, 20 national and international designers from more than 15 countries. From the Netherlands to Italy, Sweden and Canada. Designers like Duilio Forte, Valantin Loellman, Cate & Nelson, Cooper & Gorfer as well as the curators themselves will have their contemporary design represented in the dioramas of Biologiska. Biologiska, which in principle is a daylight museum will be shown in new and exciting ways made possible by the main partners, lighting companies Cardi and Elektroskandia Belysning.
The “Biologiska museet” is situated at Djurgården and was built in 1893. The architecture is inspired by the medieval Norwegian stave churches.
The pioneering educational aspect of the museum was the use of the diorama for the first time on a grand scale in order to present the natural habitat. The perspective of the diorama unites foreground and background. The large, painted backgrounds are the work of Bruno Liljefors who is famous for his dramatic painting of birds and animals.
The vast diorama, which can be viewed from two levels, presents the different types of landscape from inland Sweden as well as from the coast.
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