“This was here to have beauty on all of it´s own. To which the citizens of Copenhagen and Denmark would feel attracted. In fact, almost compulsory attracted”. More in a video here.

Why? Well first, when have you been to Vantaa? (..I know.. So why not live a little and take it as the exotic winter trip). And to save you some of that headache, just hop to the M-train. It will take you in 17minutes to Myyrmäki and the museum is – just – there.

The exhibition gathers both designers and artists around the theme of beauty. What you will experiment is 6 windows or dioramas, however you will want to see it, by designers Nathalie Lähdenmäki/ & Naoto Niidome, by graphic designs Rami Niemi & Teemu Väätäinen, by fashion designer Tuula Pöyhönen, by visual artists Maaria Wirkkala and Anna Tuori and by sculptor Tommi Toija. Each of the artists interpreting their own personal idea of beauty.

Installation is not an easy format. And even with a very skilled set of people, the exhibition really shows that the ones who work on a 3D space generally, know how to pull something like this off.

Landenmäki&Niidome scene is stunning. Or the scene was to me rather a universe that I wanted to be pulled in but had no invitation. The duo knows how to turn that volume button just to the right level and not overdo it. Everything works on the edge – so yes, all super sweet but not overwhelmingly so – and they also shows that it is totally ok to think beauty on a very classic, traditional sense – so in beautiful (perfect) forms, proportions and colors. The scene is so fragile, delicate and breakable – and that´s basically it. In the context of an art museum one would be looking for a deeper meaning of things but I look at the designers backgrounds (as well as my own) and get a kick on focusing on the things pointed out above - so on the tradition of beautiful things. And of course also the technical solutions are apparent: The rounded back wall creates the illusion of an endless space and the detailing is faultless. Was I satisfied even without the invitation to enter – yes, very.

Tommi Toija´s scene works on the absolute opposite aesthetics. Detailed with chainsaw, the work weights 10000kg and is just raw. And like Lähdemäki&Niidome´s work, the scene made me want to go in it. As Landenmäki&Niidome´s universe was more of an exclusive club, this scene says: “Hey you friend, comecome, come along, but know that it is all with your own risk”. So where is my helmet, shit, there must be so many nails – and what if all that concrete.. Yes, the “what if” is very much out there. I am curious and drawn by this raw beautiful chaos but I wonder if I have the guts in me to come along – maybe it is better to play safe and stay as the distant observer of it all.

Maaria Wirkkala´s work leads on executional perfection and thinking on beauty and me – and those who know me – would say: Point on. But I just say, yes it is good, and yes we know that the true beauty goes hand in hand with a great deal of other darker things and makes everybody around it suffer also. And no, I do not want to enter this scene but will be there when needed. But for now – I focus on the surface of the scene and say – please take those flying syringes away from my face. So I take it all in, very quickly, and walk away thinking how privileged I am for having beautiful minds in my life.

The rest of the works I see as the difficulty on actually doing an installation. They leave you entirely out even if the works and artists are interesting. I saw them more as displays than scenes and with elements that are familiar to me from the context of a fair setting. So maybe that´s why the rest of the works took me a bit off.

But if 3 out of six are very good the grand total is a very high score. So go and see it. Curated by Aalto+Aalto, graphic identity by Werklig

M-train. 17minutes.

Tomorrow starts the Stockholm Furniture Fair, but unfortunately I had to cancel my trip to the fair due to my very busy schedule in Helsinki. But, on the other hand, looking at the brighter side of things, there seems to be a great deal of new designs that are launched at the fair, so I feel of course very happy especially for my friends who will be on the spotlight this week. Here are my Finnish picks:

The newnew comes from the direction of Teemu Järvi for Omikron Design, a very nice Italian lightning company. Naoto Niidome and Ilkka Suppanen have both novelties for the Finnish producer Avarte and Mottowasabi (the one I always follow with great deal of curiosity) has several new designs for Vivero. Harri Koskinen has created some new additions to his Artek Lento chair and the newcomer in the field with some well established Finnish designers as it´s spine is the company called Arktis.

The two “it” boys (they would so kill me if they knew I just called them this) Mikko Laakkonen and Mika Tolvanen are presenting several designs for a number Finnish, Swedish and Italian companies and they seem to keep up with their busy-productive-spirit, as they of course should.

In addition to all this, restaurateur Antto Melasniemi has gathered his HEL YES! crew and headed also west.

Looking outside of the Finnish scene, this years guest of honor in Stockholm is the French designer Inga Sempé. Her small interview can be seen here.

On objects:
Designing an object is like picking a piece of marble and sculpting it because there is only one beautiful thing inside of it, one unique thought.

On interiors:
Interior design is completely different – it does not live on one idea, it lives on a thousand ideas”.

Agree very much on the last part, but wonder what Greg Lynn would have said about the object bit (the one unique thought). Too bad I missed his lecture today at the Addlab.

As a small note, even if nobody wants to talk about the art as a business, yes, I did see all those red dots… (Congratulations).