08.09.–31.12.2023
This year’s Helsinki Design Week will kick off with the opening of the Gallery exhibition Strategies for Moving Freely by Swedish designer Jenny Nordberg (b. 1978). This will be the first solo exhibition by Nordberg in Finland. She is known for her insightful perspective on mass production, over-consumption and the duty of designers to take action to confront these and other issues. Nordberg’s works often take a humorous, almost peculiar form. Rather than taking a judgmental stance, she has a positive, solution-oriented approach to serious themes. The exhibition includes a number of Nordberg’s more recent works.
Nordberg applies a problem-based and research-driven approach to her design practice. Her works do not come to life in factories but rather in the studio and small workshops. Her works are always unique and produced in a limited series. For Nordberg, as a designer, freedom is the central value. Her design process often kicks off with a period of research. This is followed by material experimentation, which then assumes the shape of a surprising new object. Additionally, Nordberg wishes to encourage the viewer or the consumer to take responsibility for their choices of objects and materials.
The Free Applications chair
Jenny Nordberg
Born in 1978 in Halland and currently lives in Skåne, in the southern part of Sweden. An industrial designer by training. Nordberg’s own production takes place in a former factory located in the Skåne countryside.
Nordberg was awarded the prestigious title of Designer of the Year in Sweden twice in 2022, by RUM magazine and ELLE Deco Design Awards.
The exhibition’s title, Strategies for Moving Freely, refers to a book published in 2020 discussing Nordberg’s work. This title aptly describes her ways of working: Nordberg not only questions the designer’s task, the conditions of the industrial design field, and contemporary life but also actively seeks solutions. Nordberg is the creative director of SPOK (Samtida Produktion och Konsumtion, in English: contemporary production and consumption), a production platform for Swedish designers and other creatives. SPOK’s website is a search engine for finding producers all around Sweden who manufacture small-scale series and prototypes.
Jenny Nordberg, photo: Petra Bindel
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