Danish Crafts presents MINDCRAFT12 in Ventura Lambrate during Milan Design Week 2012
Press release, April 16, 2012 [press photos attached]
Danish Crafts has increased the number of participants in this year’s MINDCRAFT exhibition. Sixteen of Denmark’s finest craftspeople and designers present their experimental and brand new works in a spectacular state-of-the-art exhibition in Ventura Lambrate in Milan.
Creativity and inventiveness are thriving among Danish craftspeople and designers despite the economic crisis. To highlight this rich source of energy and innovation Danish Crafts has increased the number of participants in this year’s MINDCRAFT exhibition to sixteen.
With MINDCRAFT12 Danish Crafts aims to create an exhibition platform showcasing the talent base and rich creative resources that are exploding onto the Danish design scene right now. Resources that have the capacity to inspire new products and new development, thus paving the way for growth and progress at a time of global crisis.
The spectacular concept, where furniture, ceramics, glass, textile and jewellery are put up on the wall, can be experienced in Ventura Lambrate, Salone del Mobile’s inspiring new venue for presenting experimental design ideas.
– It has become a very experimental exhibition within the framework of a precise and structured concept. We walk the plank and highlight the competences that are present in Danish design and craft right now. We showcase some of the leading designers in Denmark with comprehensive CVs as well as younger makers with a convincing potential, says Birgitte Jahn, director of Danish Crafts.
The curator of MINDCRAFT12, Cecilie Manz, continues the simple and distinct thematic course that she set last year. Functionality, material properties and quality form the core in the works that are on display, crystallised in a clean aesthetic expression that reflects the DNA of Danish craft and design.
From refined wooden coat hook to tyre tracks in clay
The diversity of the exhibition indicates the wide scope of the field. There are artistically inspired works such as ceramist Bente Skjøttgaard’s “Wheel-tracks in Clay”. There are works that were created in cooperation with small-scale manufacturers. And there are works that were created in cooperation with large-scale manufacturers such as the lamp that Louise Campbell created for the Danish lamp manufacturer Louis Poulsen.
– A common feature for the participants is that their works are the result of many hours of preparation and experimentation with materials, techniques and form – and just as many rejected ideas, says Cecilie Manz. Another characteristic shared by all the participants is that they master their craft and their material to perfection, which enables them to challenge both.
This is the fifth consecutive year that Danish Crafts stages an exhibition in Milan. The recurring presence at Salone del Mobile has resulted in an international breakthrough for Danish craftspeople and designers. Danish Crafts now cooperates with international manufacturers and high-profile galleries all over the world, and general awareness of the qualities of Danish craft and design has increased considerably during the five years that Danish Crafts has taken part in Salone.
The participants are:
BEN AND SEBASTIAN, Artists and Designers
THOMAS BENTZEN, Furniture Designer
LOUISE CAMPBELL, Designer
LINE DEPPING, Furniture Designer
ANNE FABRICIUS MØLLER, Textile Designer
GAM FRATESI, Furniture Designers
PETER JOHANSEN, Furniture Designer
KAORI JUZU, Jewellery Designer
JAKOB JØRGENSEN, Furniture Designer
CHRISTINA LILJENBERG HALSTRØM, Furniture Designer
ESKE REX, Designer and Artist
LOUISE SASS, Textile Designer
BENTE SKJØTTGAARD, Ceramist
ANNE TOPHØJ, Ceramist
TORA URUP, Glass Artist
HENRIK VIBSKOV, Designer
About MINDCRAFT
MINDCRAFT is the name of the highly acclaimed exhibitions that DANISH CRAFTS has presented during the Milan Design Week in recent years. Danish craft is characterized by originality and is a precursor for good design. A new strong generation of young Danish designers and craftspeople has stepped out of the shadow of their great predecessors. MINDCRAFT shows a selected few of these talents. The MINDCRAFT concept describes developments in Danish craft, where exquisite craftsmanship and indepth understanding of form and materials are combined with storytelling, reflection and opinion. MINDCRAFT is curated by an external curator who selects the participants among the most talented new Danish craftspeople and designers to make the exhibition's concept and statement a manifestation that reflects the field and its potential. The MINDCRAFT concept was first launched in Milan in 2008. Later that year the exhibition won the prize for “Best Contribution to 100% Design” when presented in London.
MINDCRAFT12 takes place 17 – 22 April in Ventura Lambrate, 6 Via Ventura, 20134 Milan.
For additional information and images, please contact Press Manager Dorthe Rud Michaelsen, michaelsen@danishcrafts.dk, who will be present at the exhibition on 17-20 April 2012. Likewise, individual appointments for interviews with craftspeople and an introduction to the exhibition by Curator Cecilie Manz can be arranged by contacting Dorthe Rud Michaelsen.
Danish Crafts is an institution under the Danish Ministry of Culture that aims to highlight, promote and increase turnover for Danish crafts in Denmark and abroad.
