FormmuseumNu A debate regarding the content and function of a future design museum

1. About FormmuseumNu

Since the 1920's the world has seen Swedish decorative arts and design in general as the country's strongest and most interesting cultural manifestations. Nevertheless, there is still not a single arena in the national capital where the subject can be displayed and discussed. Today, the responsibility to exhibit design is shared between several museums, all with other main focuses. A subject that so clearly reflects changes in attitudes andsocial developments is worth a better fate. Among the eighty museums that operate in the Stockholm region there should obviously be room for one that specializes in the decorative arts and design! The discussions have up until now focused on where such a museum should be situated and who should fund it rather than focus on the future museum's content and function. The purpose of the debate on February 2 is therefore to change the focus. What direction should a future design museum have? How do you create a museum that is as interesting for the specialist as for the tourist? Do we need to rethink the idea of a museum? Or renew the museum presentation? What ideas and values of the traditional museum are important to preserve? What new opportunities are presented by the internet and new social media? These are a few of the many questions that will be discussed during the afternoon. Stockholm has so far survived without a design museum, but for how long will Swedish design survive and be competitive without an arena for design in the capital of Sweden?

The panel consists of a number of internationally recognized individuals associated with the design field from England, USA, Holland, Italy and Sweden. Daniel Charny (curator of "The Power of Making", Victoria & Albert Museum, London and consultant for content and interpretation for the new Design Museum, London), Li Edelkoort (international trend forecaster and former chairman of the Design Academy Eindhoven, 1999 - 2008), Studio Formfantasma (design team from Italy, operates in the Netherlands), Nina Stritzler-Levine (chief curator and editor, Bard Graduate Center, New York), and Mikael Schiller (executive chairman and former CEO of ACNE). Annica Kvint, design and architecture critic is the moderator.

2. Partcipants on The Panel

Daniel Charny is an independent curator, designer and lecturer with an industrial design background. Co-founder of creative projects consultancy From Now On and Senior Tutor at the Royal College of Art. Between 2002 - 2010 he was the founding curator of The Aram Gallery for experimental and new design. Charny is a guest curator at world leading museums, most recently at the V&A London and TFAM Tai Pei. Selected strategic work includes leading the master-planning for recently completed new design museum in Holon, Israel, and From Now On's appointment as Content and Interpretation Consultants to the Design Museum, London. Charny contributes to international conferences and design award Juries.

Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin are Studio Formafantasma – two !talian designers based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.The collaboration between the two started during their BA in communication design. Their interest in product design developed at the IM master course at Design Academy Eindhoven, where they graduated in July 2009. The work of Studio Formafantasma touch relevant design issues such as the role of design in folk craft, the relationship between tradition and local culture, a critical approach to sustainability, and the significance of objects as a cultural vector. Andrea and Simone believe in the role of the designer as a bridge between craftwork, industry, user and objects. From this in between position the studio is interested in creating a design practice that merges craft and industry, local necessity within the global context and on a conceptual level, to stimulate a more critical and conscious relationship of the user with objects. Works of Studio Formafantasma has been shown during the Milan and the Dutch Design week, Abu Dhabi Art, during the ICFF in NewYork, Design Miami\Basel,the prestigious auction house Sotheby's in London and other international design fairs and exhibition, Works by FormaFantasma are part of the collection of: Droog Design, Rossana Orlandi Gallery in Milan, Moss gallery NY, Nodus Rugs, Dilmos Gallery and Libby Sellers Gallery.

Nina Stritzler-Levine is Chief Curator of the Gallery at the Bard Graduate Center Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture in New York City that is recognized internationally for groundbreaking exhibitions based on new research and scholarship, and a commitment to the highest quality and innovative methods of display and interpretation. In addition she directs an ambitious publishing initiative in collaboration with Yale University Press that has more than fifty titles covering a diverse range of subjects and issues, among them many books on Scandinavian design history. Her exhibitions and exhibition catalogues include: Sheila Hicks Weaving as Metaphor, Josef Frank: An Alternative Vision of the Modern Home, and Swedish Glass 1900-1939: An Alliance of Art and Industry. Ms. Stritzler-Levine has MA degrees in art history and the history of decorative arts, and is completing a Ph.D. in art history. The subject of her dissertation is Architecture and the Cultural Field of MoMA, 1929 and 1949.

Mikael Schiller is Executive Chairman of ACNE Studios. The last decade he has commercially directed ACNE (Ambition to Create Novel Expression) during its journey to become a highly progressive and successful fashion label as well as publishing house. Schillers leadership has been characterized by the idea “creatively driven but always financially sound”. Today ACNE is visited at acnestudios.com by more than half a million people every month and available in ACNE flagship stores in Stockholm, Paris, London, Berlin and NYC. Under Schillers leadership ACNE Studios has grown from barely two MUSD in turnover 2002 to more than 100 Million USD today. Mikael is also a board member of Finnish furniture group Artek.

Lidewij Edelkoort has pioneered trend forecasting as a profession and has a talent for sensing upcoming trends and what consumers would want to buy several seasons ahead of time. From 1999 to 2008 Lidewij was chairwoman of the Design Academy Eindhoven. In 2003, TIME magazine named her one of the world's 25 most influential people in fashion. More recently in February 2008, Lidewij was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication – to only name a few of Lidewij's achivements and awards. There is no creation without advance knowledge, and without design, a product cannot exist. Lidewij's work has evolved into education at the Design Academy Eindhoven, in Holland, humanitarian work within the Heartwear foundation in Paris, and curatorship as she illuminates museums around the world with art and design exhibits such as Armour in the Netherlands, Skin Tight: the sensibility of flesh at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, and North meets South which exhibited at the Centre Culturel Suédois in Paris and in Stockholm's Nordiska Museet.

Annica Kvint is a journalist who during the last 20 years has written about design and architecture. She is active as a critic on the subject and regularly contributes articles for the daily Dagens Nyheter and the magazine Arkitektur as well as a recurring engagement with the magazine Vi. Presently she is working on a book project in collaboration with the publisher Signum. Annica Kvint is a director of the board for Konsthantverkscentrum and has a past as editor in chief for the magazine Form. In 2010 she was the editor and contributor of ¨Mönsterkraft-40 år av inspiration från 10-gruppen¨.