Danish Design Museum
Great Danes
We just had time for a quick spin around the Danish Design Museum before flying out of Copenhagen last week. Its permanent collection knocks spots off the London Design Museum with a wide spectrum of contemporary Danish design including furniture, product design, graphic design, fashion and design for public spaces. The current exhibition of Erik Mortensen’s incredible haute couture creations ends on March 18th and is well worth a visit.
Ludvig Mies Van Der Rohe
“The chair is a very difficult object. Everyone who has ever tried to make one knows that. There are endless possibilities and many problems – the chair has to be light, it has to be strong, it has to be comfortable. It is almost easier to build a skyscraper than a chair.”
Mathias Bengtsson
Mathias Bengtsson has always described himself as a designer, but his works are closer to fine art than to traditional industrial design. Working with diverse industrial materials and processes, Bengtsson pushes forward the sculptural, technical, and philosophical possibilities of three-dimensional design.
I Am Black Velvet: Erik Mortensen
Erik Mortensen was a Danish haute couture fashion designer who served as creative director for iconic fashion house Pierre Balmain in the 50s and 60s. The exhibition featured mannequin moments of inspiration, beautifully lit especially for black velvet. Dark, moody, fabulous. The craftsmanship of the clothing is undeniably sublime.
Kaare Klint
The Danish Design Museum cites Kaare Klint as the father of modern Danish design. This room showed a multitude of ergonomic studies into the requirements of human body for furniture making.
Blue wires mark out the geometric space calculated in the design of his spherical bed. A blue wire vanity unit allows the user to view themselves from all angles when getting ready. Ergonomically awesome.
