Projector magazine. Issue #18
This special edition is dedicated to Finnish design. Long ago Finland became one of the leading design countries all over the world, along with the Netherlands, Japan, Switzerland, Italy, Britain and other design authorities of this world. Finnish design as a powerful and extremely charismatic phenomenon has stepped far outside the country. Finnish designer items — the works by Alvar Aalto, Ilmari Tapiovaara, Yrjo Kukkapuro, Eero Aarnio and other masters of the XX century — occupied the most honourable place in the museums of modern art and design throughout the world ages ago. Collectors hunt for authentic works by these authors of the mid-twentieth century, and many items designed half a century ago, or even earlier, are still manufactured.
The issue has many interviews — we couldn’t miss an opportunity of chatting to the world’s leading experts. The founder of Finnish design Yrjö Kukkapuro, whose path in the profession began back in the mid-1950s, invited us round to his place, which looks more like a flying saucer rather than a house in a prestigious suburb of Helsinki. He constructed it upon his own project back in 1968. And now, for over forty years, Yrjö’s been living and working here with his wife. Now the united space under the sophisticatedly curved roof is filled up with the objects by the designer, both of serial production and singular prototypes. This is a real house museum now.
In 2012, Kari Piippo, one of the best-known Finnish graphic designers, gave a lecture in St.Petersburg, and was interviewed by Projector: «Today the world is having more poster exhibitions and workshops than ever before. Only for the Poster Biennale in Lahti (Finland), about seven thousand works were sent in 2011, which suggests that the interest in the art of the poster isn’t decreasing. Speaking for myself, these days I rarely have an opportunity to work on new posters. Most of my works were created for my own exhibitions or as a response to social and political issues of the day. The poster, in my opinion, is already not a „street art“ — its best examples are displayed in museums and kept in private collections, being the same investments as other pieces of art».
Last year at the opening of the exhibition of the best Finnish Graphic design in Helsinki, I spotted very lively and vibrant lettering posters by the young Finnish designer Linda Linko. Linda also kindly answered the questions of Projector. «I drew a very funny caricature of my boyfriend. He showed it to a friend at the bar, and his friend, Lauri, was very impressed. It so happened that Lauri is quite a famous person in the music business: he is a performing artist and a producer of musical events. He brings all good DJs to Helsinki. I started to paint posters for these events. I made one, and he immediately ordered five more. I created twenty-five posters for him during the year, all of them by hand. I think this work is funny, because I don’t know much about this music».
Section #4 «Object» opens with an ax. Pavel Ulyanov, the curator of the gallery Modernariat, and the mover of the design processes, has an amazing material ingenuity. The combination of encyclopedic knowledge, intuition and luck allows him to retrieve rare and amazing items out of oblivion, such as, for example, this ax, made especially for the exhibition of the Finnish pavilion of the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900.
And again Pavel Ulyanov, who got the unique ax, makes a review of an already classic period in the history of Finnish design between the 1910s and 1970s — Eliel Saarinen to Eero Aarnio.
To continue «Object», there’s a couple of objects — one of them is the Smallroom sofa, which I spotted among the specialties of Stockholm Furniture Exhibition. And the second one is the chair Kilta, which, on the contrary, refers to the timeless design classic. It is not surprising, because this object by the designer Olli Mannermaa has been produced since 1955!
Yet another UFO in addition to the house of Yrjö Kukkapuro is Futuro House. The architect Matti Suuronen designed a typical plastic house in 1968, same as when Kukkapuro made his one. It is based on an ellipsoid capsule of eight meters in diameter and four in height, assembled of sixteen fiberglass panels (eight upper and eight lower ones). Each panel had a 5-cm warming layer of polystyrene foam. The basic design involved sixteen elliptical windows all over the perimeter, and more could be set as an option. You could enter the house from the airstairs, which made the house even more similar to the UFO image of the sixties. The polymer capsule was placed on the basis of four steel supports.
Section «Environment» is continued with another amusing construction — you can not tell whether it’s a house or a sculpture. The Bubble, an observation tower by the Finnish architect Ville Hara, could perhaps be best defined as an environmental object.
Section 7 «Photography» represents the works from the «Archive» series by Petri Summanen. We always publish a «portrait» of the camera, the main working tool of a photographer. Petri fascinated me with disassembling his Polaroid into 78 components!This is one of the best portraits we’ve ever published in the magazine. The rest of the photos are as good as this one, and the entire «Archive» is extremely witty and profound.
Section #8 «School» presents two semester assignments of the students at Aalto University. One of them was done in cooperation with the furniture company Isku, and the second one — with Blue1 Airlines. The most striking thing is that the results of the student projects have been launched into manufacturing: in one case it’s a furniture object, and in another case, a livery color scheme for an aircraft!This is a stunning result and mature performance!
Section #9 «Books» traditionally concludes the magazine. This time, here’s only one large publication: Mikhail Karasik interviews the book artist Alexander Reichstein, who has lived in Finland for many years.
And we have section #10 «ProArt». Its pilot issue features: Al Gallery, Gallery of Anna Nova, Gallery Art Re.FLEX, Medialaboratory Cyland, Frants Gallery Space, Marina Gisich gallery, Kuhnya Space, and Modernariat Gallery. Big kudos to the most advanced spaces which display contemporary art!
