Community Calling: Denmark’s Biennale for Craft & Design
Following an open call with the theme “Community”, 18 projects have been selected for the 12th edition of Denmark’s very own Biennale for Craft and Design.
Organised by the Danish Crafts & Design Association, the Biennale for Craft and Design aims to take stock of contemporary Danish crafts and design as an exhibition and competition. All professionals within the crafts and design field in Denmark or craftspeople and designers living outside of Denmark may submit applications as a part of an artist/design group as long as they have at least one Danish member. All applications go through a process of selection through a jury, and the selected exhibitors compete for the Biennale Award with a prize sum of 100.000 Danish kroner (around 13.500 euros) donated by the private foundation Grosserer L. F. Foghts Fond.
Following an Open Call with the theme ‘Community’, this year’s jury — consisting of Anni Nørskov Mørch (curator at Koldinghus and Kolding Design School), Pernille Stockmarr (curator at Designmuseum Denmark) and Maria Foerlev (owner of Etage Projects) — has selected 18 projects created by a total of 26 creators. On their selection, the jury has said the following:
“The selected projects all have a high academic, aesthetically or conceptually strong content and expression. We are pleased that exhibitors are both well-established makers as well as newly educated craftspeople and designers. It shows that the Biennale is still a relevant scene for contemporary arts & crafts and design.”
The selected designers present a variety of expressions, materials, techniques and stories — with each project offering a different perspective on this year’s theme. Some start off with a more dystopian gaze towards community — like designer and visual artist Christina Christensen‘s piece ‘NO STRAW SHORTENER’ — whereas others reflect more on the everyday contemporary life — like designer Ole Jensen’s ‘Grey Everyday’.
Alongside its exhibitors, the Biennale will also host and present workshops and interactive projects, like the ‘Popsicle Index Workshop‘ by Margrethe Odgaard — which examines the sensory perception of colours) — and Charlotte Østergaard’s ‘AweAre’, which explores the nature of community by inviting the audience to collective try on an item of clothing and encouraging them to physically explore a collective body.
Finally, a piece whose colours and concept particularly highlight the diverse dynamics of the open call, Bienalle and its theme is Kristine Mandsberg’s colourful installation titled ‘Three of a Kind’. Consisting of three individual figures, viewers will be encouraged to play and engage with each other in transforming the form of the piece. In this way, it seeks to generate shared experiences and a community consisting of people who otherwise might not have met; the community of the Biennale for Craft & Design.
This edition of the Biennale for Craft & Design will take place at Nordatlantens Brygge in Copenhagen from April 18th to May 5th 2019.
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