Design exhibition at the Swedish Institute in Paris
Where: Swedish Institute in Paris/Centre culturel suédois; 11, rue Payenne, Paris
When: Preview May 5, 6–8:30 pm, with the exhibition running May 6-July 26
The Swedish Institute in Paris, in cooperation with the Röhsska Museum of Design and Decorative Arts in Gothenburg, will kick off the summer with the design exhibition Mais où va le design suédois? (“Where is Swedish design headed?”).
Photo: Image from "Mais où va le design suédois?", on display at the Swedish Institute in Paris this spring and early summer.
Taking as its starting point Karin and Carl Larsson’s home in Sundborn, which in its time represented the odd and unusual, the exhibition provides an overview of design in Sweden today and asks the questions: what avant-gardists will take the Larssons’ place? What designers will be considered typically Swedish in a hundred years?
“The French have a picture of Swedish design as minimalist and functional. With this exhibition, we want to provide a broader picture of where Swedish design is today. A trend seen not just in Sweden is the return of folklore. Sweden has wonderful traditions here that are now being shown in new ways,” says Mikael Jönsson, head of the Swedish Institute (SI) in Paris.
More than thirty designers are being presented at the exhibition, both through functional and decorative objects. Some of the quirkiest contributions are the design group Front’s animal furniture in its natural size, a lamp in the shape of the brain of its designer, Alexander Lervik, and a bowl by Ingrid Petrini made of embroidery and braided metal tubes for a Swedish favorite, the fish roe spread Kalles Kaviar.
Other participating designers include: Åsa Jungnelius, Jonathan Josefsson, Linus Kjellqvist, Fuldesign, Form us with love, Ludvig Löfgren and Frida Fjellman. The exhibition is a continuation of Sundborn goes extreme again, which was shown last year at Carl Larsson-Gården and at Röhsska Museum. Those curating the exhibition from Röhsska Museum: Ted Hesselbom, Per Dahlström and Annette Prior.
For more information, please contact:
Gunilla Norén, press officer, Swedish Institute in Paris / Centre culturel suédois, phone: +33-1 44 78 80 15, e-mail: 
Joakim Lindberg, press and information officer, Swedish Institute, phone: +46(0)8-453 78 01, cell phone: 073-684 20 22, e-mail: 
Activities being held in connection with ”Mais où va le design suédois?”
Guided tours (45 minutes, free entry, no advance sign-up necessary)
Thursday May 14, 7:30 pm, Tuesday May 26 at 6:45 pm and Saturday June 29 at 2 pm. For school or after-school tours, contact: 
Mini-concerts with traditional music
Thursday May 21, 5-6 pm. Stora Kopparbergs Church Choir is celebrating early summer with a program inspired by the Dalarna region. The courtyard of Hôtel de Marles will be filled with harmony singing of popular Swedish composers like Hugo Alfvén, Anders Nyberg and Rudolf Sundqvist. Free entry with no advance sign-up necessary.
Roundtable discussion – “Beauty for everyone?”
Tuesday May 26, 7:30 pm. The discussion will consider the idea of beauty for everyone that originated with the Swedish educational theorist and writer Ellen Key in the late 19th century. A number of questions will be debated, taking as their staring point the origins of Swedish design. If beauty for everyone is still a relevant concept today, who in that case bears responsibility for it? What are the criteria for this beauty? Is it possible to combine a concept of beauty with the independence of the artist? Artists, producers, journalists and researchers from various fields will gather to discuss their experiences and ideas. Free entry; advance sign-up required:
A World of Folk
Tuesday June 2, 7:30 pm. Lecture by Philip Fimmano from the trend forecaster Studio Edelkoort will present and analyze the return of folklore and traditional patterns in today’s design. This trend is seen especially clearly in Scandinavia in its interior design, architecture, and arts and crafts as well as cooking! Free entry; advance sign-up required: