&Tradition’s hybrid art-design exhibition aims to highlight the Copenhagen-based brand’s global perspective, inviting five designers and design studios from across the globe to explore the material and foundational possibilities of the common bench
Photography courtesy of &Tradition featuring the Proletariat bench by New York and Mexico City-based Savvy Studios
Words by Jessica-Christin Hametner
The revival of a design classic is often fuelled by nostalgia, but Copenhagen-based brand &Tradition looks beyond Denmark’s borders. Adding to its international community, the firm has invited five designers and design studios from across the globe to create a collection of benches that look to Denmark’s design heritage and egalitarian values but do so with a worldly, statement twist.
Unveiled during this year’s edition of 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen at &Tradition’s baroque-style showroom dating back to 1913, Studies of a Bench is the second part in an analytical deconstruction of archetypal forms and follows the previous Studies of a Table as its counterpart in a series of hybrid art-design exhibitions.
A gathering of cultural influences, it comprises the Proletariat bench by New York and Mexico City-based Savvy Studio; the Cylinder Bench by Korean designer Jeonghwa Seo and Lata Bench by Agnes Studio, composed of modular blocks made from compressed aluminium cans. Adding to this range of graphic benches is Lucent Bench by All the Way to Paris (ATWTP) and Falda by Italian studio studioutte, which is made of elongated solid wood.
Photography courtesy of &Tradition featuring a bright red bench called Lucent by All the Way to Paris; Jeonghwa Seo’s cast aluminium and acrylic Cylinder Bench, and Agnes Studio’s Lata Bench
It is this focus on tactility, and especially the use of repurposed materials, that runs as a continuous thread throughout the exhibition. Displaying the exploratory approach of the participating designers, Studies of a Bench showcases a refreshing approach toward material curiosity.
For instance, Proletariat bench – produced with support from Sfrido Estate – is made with the scraps of a luxury material that would otherwise be discarded, while Jeonghwa Seo’s Cylinder Bench is a formation of cast aluminium tubes and transparent acrylic.
Elsewhere, Agnes Studio’s Lata Bench – composed of modular blocks made from compressed aluminium cans – is a playful experiment with a simple bench archetype. Exploring the potential of a non-traditional material and its possible uses, it embraces the uncontrolled aesthetics and the duality of creating something beautiful from a non-aesthetic, ‘post-trash’ material.
Lucent by All the Way to Paris is crafted locally in Copenhagen from Swedish fir, while studioutte’s vision for Falda sees the studio’s bench encapsulate the rudimentary architecture of a roof. Composed of elongated solid wood that rests precisely on untreated natural aluminium, Falda is a work of tension between tactility and equilibrium.
Photography courtesy of &Tradition featuring Agnes Studio and the pair’s Lata Bench
Looking to Denmark’s egalitarian values – benches are free, public and accessible to all – Studies of a Bench is a manifestation of &Tradition’s desire to connect people worldwide as part of its international creative community. A project where the end goal is not solely the end product itself, but the inquisitive exploration that takes place beforehand and the chance encounters made during and after.
While the shapes are both experimental and inherently simple, echoing the timeless DNA of Scandinavian design, the emphasis on materiality lends this collection of benches a refreshingly modern appeal. With bold, playful designs and a daring attitude revealing innovative ways of using materials and forms, &Tradition is ushering in a new era of Danish design.
The benches will be later sold at auction, with proceeds from each bench being donated to charities chosen by the designers and creative studios. For more information visit andtradition.com
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