29 February – 7 April 2024
Ung Svensk Form is a jury-judged traveling exhibition and award run by Svensk Form and which started in 1998. Ung Svensk Form 2024 is the first in a series of three with the exhibition form Årsringar with Dunkers Culture Center in Helsingborg as exhibition producer and Matti Klenell as exhibition designer. Ung Svensk Form 2024 is shown at Dunker’s cultural center between 29 February and 7 April.
– Young Swedish Form has constantly proven to be a current and exciting exhibition concept, and that we now have the opportunity to really develop and challenge the form through climate-smart and innovative solutions is, to say the least, an honorable mission, says Axel Swanstein, exhibition producer at Dunker’s cultural center.
In this year’s exhibition, 24 winners selected by a renowned jury are shown. The categories are architecture, graphic design/illustration, industrial design, arts and crafts, fashion/textiles and furniture. It is a comprehensive and form-speaking exhibition about Swedish form today and for the future. Through the exhibition, several of the participants have been awarded scholarships from various partners such as IKEA, Kvadrat, Postnord Stamps and Swedish Wood, to name a few.
Ung Svensk Form is the result of a collaboration between many people, organizations and companies. Karin Wiberg, project manager for Ung Svensk Form, tells more:
– I am always just as touched when I take part in the contributions that are selected by the jury in Ung Svensk Form, the honest, straightforward striving and the feeling of wanting to influence and change, the courage to go his own way in craftsmanship, choice of materials and expression. Now we are designing the entire exhibition in the same passionate spirit together with Dunker’s cultural center as new producer, Matti Klenell as designer and with Svenskt Trä’s materials and solid knowledge – Ung Svensk Form 2024 is really being lifted to new fantastic heights.
Ung Svensk Form will be shown at six different cultural institutions from February 2024 through January 2025.
Ung Svensk Form tour 2024
February 6–10: opening in Greenhouse during Stockholm Furniture fair
February 29–April 7: Dunkers cultural center, Helsingborg
May 23–26 : Form/Design Center (Lokstallarna) during Southern Sweden Design Days, Malmö
15 June–18 August: Sara kulturhus, Skellefteå
12 September–20 October: IKEA Museum, Älmhult
16 November 2024–19 January 2025: Röhsska museum, Gothenburg
The Young Swedish Form project started in 1998 on the initiative of Swedish Form and Form/Design Center in Malmö. In the years 2024–2026, Dunkers Cultural Center takes over as exhibition producer with this year’s concept, Årsringar. It must be smart, durable and a form of exhibition in symbiosis with its objects. Axel Swanstein, exhibition producer at Dunker’s cultural center, says:
– Young Swedish Form as an exhibition is completely unique. The ambition from Dunker’s cultural center is to develop the already fantastic format and come up with an exhibition form that can be reused for three years, adapts to Sweden’s various exhibition rooms and puts the contributions at the center. To finally be taken apart and reused as limited furniture. Quite simply, a new way of building and managing exhibitions.
Year Rings
In Matti Klenell’s exhibition concept, Year Rings, for Ung Svensk Form 2024, a set of splash-painted wooden cubes in a variety of sizes is presented. During transport, the cubes are resource-wise packed into each other, like a Babushka or just like the annual rings on a tree. The cubes are then assembled in scattered podium islands of varying height and scale, which offer the visitor an archipelago of discoveries. The exhibition format enables the viewer to see synergies between the works, while at the same time appropriating each one individually.
– Annual rings must be used in three editions and accommodate three years of designers until 2026. The emphasis is therefore on a frame that can be reshaped in symbiosis with the objects that are selected but at the same time be a clear concept that creates recognition and identity for Young Swedish Form over time . The result is a design where layers are added in a story that only grows stronger over time and where the individual participant becomes part of a larger whole, says Matti Klenell, exhibition designer for Ung Svensk Form 2024.
About the collaboration
The exhibition Ung Svensk Form 2024 is a co-production between Svensk Form and Dunker’s cultural center. The project is carried out in collaboration with IKEA of Sweden, IKEA Museum, Malmö city, Stockholm Furniture Fair, Svenskt Trä and a long list of scholarship donors and exhibition organizers.
