last wednesday night the arts and culture house bundled up, unlocked our cold bikes, and precariously biked in an unrelenting wind to the danish architecture center.
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bike map of copenhagen |
we went to see the exhibition "in dialogue with the world", which shows how today's architects are bound by many other considerations than the purely aesthetic, when they create their buildings. how can architects design and build a space that gives atmosphere? reflection? dialogue? identity? opportunity?
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model for a student performance house |
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model for a criminal justice facility |
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a child's design for a new metro station entrance |
on a sunny saturday, i made my way over to strøget, the pedestrian street a few blocks away and began my independent field study for my danish design class. we were to visit the flagship stores of illums bolighus, georg jensen, and royal copenhagen and find one classic/historical work of product design, which specifically stems from the post-war period (1950s-1960s) and one product deign of the same genre that is new/contemporary (1980-present). needless to say, i was lost for hours in the garden of danish design that occupied four floors worth of three buildings.
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a number of classic danish lamps, the most famous of which is the 'artichoke lamp' in the upper left-hand corner, designed by poul henningsen in 1958. this lamp can literally be seen in every single building, apartment, restaurant, shop, etc. in copenhagen. |
we were to reflect on the product designs, which i found useful to also apply to the architecture i had seen earlier in the week. in design, what is borrowed? what is new? and where then do we find ourselves in the multitude of creations? so what is design? what is art? or more importantly, what is the space in-between?
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flora danica is one of the world's most prestigious and luxurious porcelain collections. dating from the 1700s, it was created as a gift from royalty to royalty and is still used by kings and queens today. |
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on sale! royal copenhagen work from the christmas season |
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must-have porcelain eggs for the easter season |
on saturday, a group of grinnellians and i went to a very avant-garde dance performance, "stimulation overload", a reaction to the inhuman immigration systems of europe. four dancers threw themselves into a raw, brutal, physical, and tempo filled performance by choreographer kirstine ilum when exploring pressing, present, and sometimes tragic parts of our human society. dark poetry mixed with an appeal for reflection when alienation in our society is being put in the spotlight. how do you get through life when home is somewhere else? what are the consequences of abuse of power and restrictions in freedom of speech? (www.somaticnoise.com)
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exposed, extradited, foreign, lonely. photo courtesy of www.somaticnoise.com. |
finally, january 30- february 3 marked copenhagen's fashion week. a stark contrast to the very deep and emotional questions posed through the mediums of dance, product design, and architecture, the party scene of fashion design brought with it an entirely different world. friday night we visited simon's night club in honor of the fashion line, moonspoon saloon. on saturday, we somehow bypassed the guest list for the official closing party at hive night club, located just down the street from our apartment and entered a world of materialism, superficial beauty, alcohol, and defeaning electronic music that left my body slightly tingling for the entire night. it was unreal. supermodels filled the venue as artsy and risque visual projections lined the walls and bouquets of moët, grey goose, and dom pérignon in ice buckets decorated every table. it was quite the party to say the least.
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anna and i killin it on friday |
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photo courtesy of simons |
after a whirlwind weekend, some of my housemates and i visited the danish design museum next to amaliensborg castle. it's a huge museum (free to students) that we only got a taste of and will surely be visiting again in the near future. our main goal, however, was to view a current exhibition on the art of album covers and the current vinyl revival. it was interesting to see an exhibition that addressed the album cover both as common property and as a design object that is recognized for its ability to define a mood and an atmosphere.
the week certainly gave me much to reflect on. we'll see if i find any more clarity of it all by the end of my time in this dream that is my semester in denmark.
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