Modern[ism]

Anticipating Helsinki’s status as the World Design Capital 2012, the Design Museum Helsinki looks at modernism and its manifestations from the late 19th century to the present day.

Modern[ism] focuses on Nordic dimensions and the reduced and functional form of the established image of Finnish design and its relation to the wider international scene. The show examines the tension that modernisation brings as old directives are rejected in favour of new ideas brought about by industrial and technological advances.

Starting with a broader perspective of the pre-modern era by way of introduction, the main focus is the impact of modernism on the evolution of design, as well as architecture, the arts and photography, during the ‘golden age’ of modernism from 1910 to the late 1930s.

Iconic pieces like the Barcelona Chair (1929) by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer’s Wassily Chair (1925) are exhibited alongside less familiar works, including a private collection of silver objects belonging to Swedish designer Sylvia Stave.

Harri Koskinen, a leading contemporary Finnish designer (whose design, Sofabed, won the Wallpaper* Design Award 2010 best domestic design) has curated an exhibit of chairs by 12 Finnish designers from the past four decades to showcase contemporary Finnish design from the 1960s to the present day.

World War II interrupted the developments of modernism that were underway in Finland in the 1930s, so it was not until the 1950s that modernism became part of the lives of consumers.