Design from Finland
HARDCORE - New Finnish Design in New York
Finnish designers take over Meatpacking District during New York Design Week 2008. From May 17 until May 19, 2008 HARDCORE New Finnish Design showcases 20 individual design projects and concepts from Finland presented in collaboration with major Finnish design companies Iittala, Artek and Marimekko. The exhibition is organized by Design Forum Finland, the Consulate General of Finland in New York and the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, and presented in collaboration with the Meatpacking District Initiative and Abe NYC, Inc. The exhibition opens to the public on Saturday May 17, 12 pm.
The HARDCORE exhibition defines the essence of today's Finnish design. It gives a timely view on Finland's unique design scene through the eyes of exhibition curator, world-renowned designer Ilkka Suppanen. His statement about HARDCORE: "Hardcore is used to refer to an extreme dedication to a specific activity or to something more intense than the regular mainstream. It can also be understood as a definition of the most authentic part of something, the essential core of something. Finnish design is extreme in its own way. It focuses on the essence of the design problem at hand and the situation in question."
Ilkka Suppanen, born 1968, studied architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology and Interior and Furniture Design at the University of Art and Design Helsinki. In 1995, he founded Studio Suppanen. The studio offers services in the fields of interior, product and concept design as well as architecture. Ilkka Suppanen has received many international awards and his work has been displayed in several exhibitions worldwide, including shows at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Milan Furniture Fair and the MoMA in New York. His works are also included in the permanent collections of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Cologne.
HARDCORE exhibition underlines the innovative and slightly extreme nature of Finnish design. The presented work focuses on the essence of the specific design problems at hand in their particular context. The designs in the exhibition cover a broad range of design fields from graphic design to fashion and product design. The exhibition also highlights Helsinki as an innovative design capital of Scandinavia.
The projects included in the curated section of the exhibition are by Noa Bembibre, Fokus Fabrik, Jaana and Päivi Haaksiluoto, Kokoro & Moi, koneHelsinki, Harri Koskinen (Genelec), Yrjö Kukkapuro and Henrik Enbom (Saas Instruments), Janne Kyttänen (Freedom of Creation), Hannu Kähönen (Creadesign), Mikko Laakkonen (Selki-Asema, Covo), Kristiina Lassus (Alessi), Arihiro Miyake, Mikko Paakkanen (Saas Instruments), Pentagon Design (Tikkurila), Provoke Design, Anne Kyyrö Quinn, Anna Ruohonen, Stepan Sarpaneva, and Tonfisk Design.
Within the next time we will portray several of the participating designers, starting with Harri Koskinen.
For more information visit www.hardcoredesign.net
