Design Museum Danmark asked me to design the exhibition of the museum’s collection of 500 years of tableware. I have responded with a question: “The word tableware starts with the table. How can we exhibit “ware” without tables?”
Many tables from the museum’s storage have never been shown – tables need a lot of space in the exhibition and often are not very sexy exhibition objects compared with f.ex. chairs…
But in the context of tableware, the table becomes absolutely relevant.
I imagined a “chain” of tables in one stripe creating a timeline from 1500 till our time. Their historical style is different and their dimensions also – some are higher, some wider. Like at the street party, where each house came with a table they had, with dinnerware and cutlery, they had in the cupboard…
I dreamt of an empty half-dark room with a giant illuminated “aquarium” in the middle of it – like an enormous lighted crystal. In it is a long cavalcade of covered tables and it is possible to get very close to behold the objects exhibited inside of it. The long transparent walls are without window frames and mullions that disturb the view and break the timeline…
We were lucky to find the manufacturer on the other side of the world that could produce for us the 12m long acrylic walls in one piece and deliver them to the Museum.
19/06/22 — 31/12/25
Little Table, Cover Thyself!
Design Museum Danmark
Bredgade 68
DK-1260 København K