Moving Forward exhibition shows work by emerging designers

Moving Forward exhibition shows work by emerging designers at Stockholm Design Week

A collection of upcoming designers have shown pieces including a bench constructed from mining waste and brutalist-informed furniture as part of the Moving Forward exhibition curated by Kråkvik & D'Orazio at Stockholm Design Week.

Moving Forward was the official exhibition of Stockholm Design Week and showed works by 42 designers and brands.

A blue bench and brown sculptures — The pieces, including sculptures by Kaja Dahl (left) and Tron Meyer (second from left), were shown on tilted wooden displays

Curated by Norwegian stylists Jannicke Kråkvik and Alessandro D'Orazio, who work together as Kråkvik & D'Orazio, Moving Forward aimed to showcase small-scale producers, makers, designers and artists who work directly with the materials they use.

"I think in most cases, the material has played a huge part in shaping the actual designs," Kråkvik told Dezeen. "The connection between the chosen material and the design was quite important."

A wooden table with a matching chair and orange lamp — Much of the furniture on show was made from wood, such as this table by Fjordfiesta and chair by Niko June. Orange lamp by Katrin Greiling

The duo collaborated with Stockholm Design Week's area project manager, Hanna Nova Beatrice, who helped find some of the Swedish designers in the exhibition.

"Then we knew the Danish, Norwegian and Finnish market and we have a designer from Portugal," Kråkvik said. "It's a lot of new names."

Lacquered bench and decorative cabinet in exhibition — Lab La Bla designed a blue-and-brown bench, left, while Thomas Sandell created a decorative cabinet, centre

The resulting selection was divided into four sections – one showing more handcrafted pieces in organic shapes, mainly made in wood, one that focused on more elegant and often lacquered pieces, one that featured typical Scandinavian designs that also had a Japanese influence, and finally a section with brutalist-like designs.

Among the pieces on show in the section with lacquered designs was Malmö-based studio Lab La Bla's Viper Bench, a long, thin bench made from spruce, copper mining waste, pigment and lacquer. The studio also showed two vases as part of Moving Forward.

"The bench was actually a prototype for a private commission," Axel Landström, co-founder of Lab La Bla, told Dezeen. "The vases we had also done before. They fitted in with the theme and were just lying around collecting dust in the studio, so this was the perfect way to showcase them."

Other pieces on show included a chair and side table made from reclaimed fishing nets from Portugal by Ekbacken Studios. The studio works with local fishermen to turn their nets, which are made from polyamide, into materials that can be used for 3D printing.

Bright red pine chair — Fredrik Paulsen showed a red chair next to Hysteria's small table, left, and Furtherther's charred black stool, right

In the section dedicated to brutalist-informed designs, the furniture on show included a large pine chair decorated with bright-red paint by designer Fredrik Paulsen.

The name of the exhibition, Moving Forward, suits the design on show, Kråkvik said.

"With the Scandinavian designs, you can still see and recognise the way we work with materials, but it's not so typical – it's moving forward, moving sideways," she explained.

Wooden furniture in front of pale green wall — Many of the pieces had an organic feel, such as Atelier Axo's white Uno lamp, a plyboard table by Johan Lindau from Blå Station and Axel Wannberg's irregularly-shaped side table (behind)

The exhibition pieces were shown on top of wooden stands, which had been slanted to give a more lively feel to the room. These will be disassembled and the material reused once the exhibition ends.

Also taking part in Moving Forward were Andreas Nobel, Are Mokkelbost, Atelier Axo, Axel Wannberg, Bjørn van den Berg, Blå Station, Elsa Unnegård, Fjordfiesta, Fogia, Folkform, Fredrik Nielsen, Furtherther, Henrik Ødegaard, Hysteria, Ishinomaki Laboratory, Johanson, Jotun, JOY, Kaja Dahl, Katarina Höglund, Katrin Greiling, KFK Snickeri, Layered, Made by choice, Magniberg, Menu, Niko & June, Origin Made, SCP, Simon Klenell, Studio Vraco, Thomas Sandell, Tron Meyer, Vaarnii, Veermakers, Verk, Westblom Krasse Arkitektur and Wästberg.

Colourful wooden stools by Joanna Laajisto from Made by Choice with art by Hank Grüner were on display at Moving Forward

Stockholm Design Week is also showing work by architect India Mahdavi, who has collaborated with Swedish homeware brand Svenskt Tenn. Technology company LG Electronics is the official partner of Stockholm Design Week.

Moving Forward is on show at NK as part of Stockholm Design Week from 5 September to 11 September 2022. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

The photography is by Erik Lefvander.