×

Subscribe to our newsletter

Highlights From the Previous Week, Partnered Events and Haikus. View our Newsletter archive

Monica Förster: Celebrating the Nordic light

Dec 28, 2016

TLmag spoke to Monica Förster about her Silver Flower Pot vase for Swedish heritage brand Skultuna, now showing at Spazio Nobile.

Scroll right to read more ›
Text by Lise Coirier

For celebrated Swedish designer Monica Förster, ideas often supersede shape. Nevertheless, her cross-disciplinary approach has been described as formally pure and materially innovative. Having worked for leading brands like Alessi, Bernhardt, Cappellini, De Padova, Offecct, Swedese, Poltrona Frau, Volvo and Whirlpool, Förster’s Stockholm-based studio has established itself as one of Sweden’s leading firms. Developing new typologies in industrial, furniture and object design, the designer has received numerous accolades including the prestigious aufblasbarer wasserpark kaufen Imm Cologne Interior Innovation Award in 2015. Her work is also featured in numerous museum collections including New York’s MoMA and London’s V&A. TLmag spoke to Förster about her Silver Flower Pot vase for Swedish heritage brand Skultuna.

TLmag: What is your affinity for silver as both a visual and material composite?
Monica Förster: I like the purity of the metal. It also creates a really good contrast to the collection of pots that are now in brass and copper. I very much like the mix.

TLmag: Your Silver Flower Pot design features a silver finish. What visual, physical, or metaphoric treatment does this effect allow you to express?
MF: Reflections, both physical and visual.

TLmag: What process did you use to achieve a silver aesthetic?
MF: As part of the Flower Pots series, which come in four sizes and three materials, the silver can be both matte or shiny. In that present case, it is silver plated but could also be ordered in 925 sterling silver.

TLmag: How did your choice of material allow you to adopt an iridescent, reflective, or luminous effect within your design?
MF: I grew up in Lapland and, in the winter, there is a lot of snow, which reflects the light in many different ways. In springtime, the light is super strong. I guess that this affects my design and the way I approach it. There is a mystical atmosphere in the extreme areas of the Nordic countries, which is not really possible to explain but needs to be felt.

TLmag: In what way can the silver finish and chosen material extend the function of your design?
MF: In most of my studio work, the idea comes first, then the material follows to strengthen it. In some projects, the material itself could also be a starting point.

Season III – Silver Edition, design & Silvano Magnone, handmade photography,Spazio Nobile, Brussels (BE), 24.11.2016-19.2.2017, www.spazionobile.com

Monica Förster
Monica Förster
kin-flowerpot
s790-s
(c) Jean-François Jaussaud, Luxproductions for Spazio Nobile /TLmag
(c) Jean François Jaissaud, Luxproductions for Spazio Nobile /TLmag
Installation view of exhibition Silver Edition at Spazio Nobile. Photo: Jörg Bräuer
Installation view of exhibition Silver Edition at Spazio Nobile. Photo: Jörg Bräuer
Installation view of Silver Edition exhibition at Spazio Nobile. Photo: Jörg Bräuer
Installation view of exhibition Silver Edition at Spazio Nobile. Photo: Jörg Bräuer
Back

Articles you also might like

PAD Paris returns to the Tuileries for the 26th edition of this collectible art and design fair. The fair is on view between April 3-7, 2024.

Spazio Nobile presents Good Luck! New Experiments, a group show of nine designers, at the 7th edition of COLLECTIBLE, at the Vanderborght Building in Brussels between March 7- March 10, 2024.

COLLECTIBLE, the international fair founded by Clélie Debehault and Liv Vaisberg and dedicated to 21st collectible design, returns for its 7th edition at the Vanderborght Building in Brussels from March 7-10th, 2024.

Between February 22-25, NOMAD St. Moritz returns to the former Hotel Eden for a cutting-edge presentation of 25 galleries and 9 special projects.