Mindcraft 17: Krøyer and Sætter-Lassen

Everyone knows that time is tricky but how does it actually affect our daily routines, working processes and ever-changing surroundings? For this year’s edition of Mindcraft – mounted by the Danish Arts Foundation during Milan Design Week: 4-9 April – guest curator and scenographer Henrik Vibskov opted to explore a site-specific condition: how different times-of-day cast different atmospheres at the San Simpliciano Cloister; how the droves of visitors that take the Italian city by storm during this hectic week might find pause in this ephemeral haven. The architecture of the locale allows an inner courtyard to cut off from the bustle of street life; providing an ample setting to showcase commissioned projects by 18 Danish craft-led talents: Tobias Møhl, Yuki Ferdinandsen, Eske Rex & Maria Mengel, Birk Marcus Hansen, Emil Krøyer & Mads Sætter-Lassen, Anne Dorthe Vester & Maria Bruun, Kasper Kjeldgaard, Lærke Valum, Marianne Eriksen Scott-Hansen, Isabel Berglund, Hanne G, Anders Ruhwald, Christina Schou Christensen, Pernille Pontoppidan Pedersen and Carl Emil Jacobsen. 

Though specialised in various mediums: graphics, ceramics, glass, textiles, silverware, wood and marble etc., all were prompted to work with the concept of time. Celebrated polyglot Vibskov allocated each creative with a specific period in the day to consider while developing their new works. Some explored the theme by looking at how material is sourced, how age-old techniques weight up to contemporary demands, and how function can be readdressed. TLmag had the opportunity to visit many of the exhibitors’ studios in Copenhagen earlier this month. Here’s the first in a series of profiles, ahead of Milan Design Week. 

With one of the shortest allocated time spans: 05:26:06–05:43:22, young duo Emil Krøyer and Mads Sætter-Lassen were confronted with the dichotomy of mass versus craft production. Turning this condition on its head, they sourced Danish Blue Rønne granite; a material that is both local but that also took two billion years to arrive in the Baltic Sea. Celebrating the tactical and haptic qualities time has afforded this material, Krøyer and Sætter-Lassen decided to accentuate a deep blue grain achieved through millennia of erosion. Plinth is a low-lying table that cantilevers a dark hue glass table top on a mass of the stone. Offering physical and aesthetic juxtaposition, a cross beam of slightly-beveled beech wood plays an intermediary role in balances the transparent plane above while embedding in the off-centre mass below. Suggesting additional contrast, brass brackets work as additional supports. This strategic and monumental mix of noble composites echoes the same tension. Krøyer and Sætter-Lassen are fellow Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design graduates who strive for an honest approach; making different processes explicit. Nothing is left unturned in their work. 

Mindcraft 17: 4-9 April
Chiostro Minore di San Simpliciano
Piazza Paolo VI 6
20121 Milan