CURATION

The exhibition focuses on the act of moving, playing with pairs of items, ‘doubles’ that often occur when two people move in together, and communicates the different themes that occur in Finnish and Icelandic design today. It is curated by Hlin Helga Guðlaugsdóttir, Elina Aalto and Marika Tesolin. According to the curators,

“Through carefully selected objects and projects we compare, contrast and communicate Icelandic and Finnish design languages, our material culture, design industry, current topics and approaches to design.

Through our work, certain strong themes started to emerge, forming pairs and groups within the home and guiding the selection process. This is by no means a complete rendering of the Finnish and Icelandic design scenes, but an attempt to paint the spectrum in broad strokes.

Our aim has been to highlight what is interesting now, rather than “newness” which tends to dominate design discussions, aspiring to reveal the strongest potentials and relevance of Finnish and Icelandic designers on the Nordic design scene today.”

VISUAL IDENTITY

Our visual identity is by the Icelandic graphic designer and illustrator Siggi Odds. It conveys the clashing, the coexistence and the interplay of the two design communities in a playful way, but with a closeness representing the home and everything that comes with it. 

The conceptual starting point was the curatorial concept of duality. The pairs of illustrated characters represent the interaction, matching and play of the exhibited pairs, as well as the ‘living together’ aspect of the designers from each country.

The logotype is a collaboration between Siggi Odds and Guðmundur Úlfarsson. It presents a typographical representation of duality - twins of each letter are intertwined as one character, creating a slightly chaotic, but legible logotype. 

Siggi Odds is an Icelandic graphic designer and illustrator based in Reykjavík. Working in equal parts as a designer and illustrator for both international and local clients, Siggi has received numerous awards. Siggi’s work has been exhibited in at least 6 countries and his work is in the permanent collections of the design museums of Iceland, Sweden and Finland.

TYPEFACE

Our secondary typeface Landnáma by Gudmundur Ulfarsson is inspired by the embossed lettering plate of a public monument in downtown Reykjavík.

The close-sitting letterforms are melted together, just like in the process of making the plate, where the letters must be pushed out of the metal. 

Landnáma was originally used in the publication “Competing Temporalities” by London based artists Lloyd Corporation. It has since been used by the New York Times Magazine for its 2014 Innovation Issue, and now for WE LIVE HERE.

Guðmundur Úlfarsson is an Icelandic graphic and type designer. Together with his colleague Mads Freund Brunse, he runs the type foundry ‘Or Type’ in Reykjavík. His award winning type design has gained a lot of attention and has recently been used in magazines such as The New York Times Magazine and The Wire, as well as being used in the identity for the Sundance Film Festival.

FASHION

Pieces by some of our favorite Nordic designers hang in our closets. You will see the WE LIVE HERE family wear Magnea Einarsdóttir, Kronkron, R/H and Vimma. Instead of a drawer, our jewellery by Águsta Sveinsdóttir, STAKA, Kría Jewelry and Fiona Cribben is spread all over the walls. Our dancing shoes are by Kronkron and Minna Parikka. Read more about all of them in the Designer listings. 

FOOD

The WE LIVE HERE menus and cupboards are curated by an Icelandic-Finnish chef team Sami Tallberg and Fannar Vernhardsson.

We want to highlight the Nordic food culture, Icelandic and Finnish ingredients and celebrate collaboration on all arenas of life, including the kitchen. We cannot see what the chefs cook up!

Sami Tallberg is a forager and chef specialized in ultra seasonal, local and often wild food with passion for vegetarian food. His fascinating cookbooks, lectures, foraging courses and work around the world have earned him Finland Prize in 2012 for “bringing out in very new, unique way of style of Finnish food by using ingredients of wild nature”.

Fannar Vernarðsson is the executive chef at VOX Restaurant and member of the Icelandic culinary team. Fannar comes from Siglufjörður, a small town in Northern Iceland. In his kitchen, he focuses on the New Nordic Cuisine, regularly taking his team of chefs with him to the countryside gathering local wild herbs, mushrooms and berries which they serve with a wild yet elegant style.

Our cupboards are stocked with food from Finland, Iceland and Sweden.

WE LIVE HERE MENU

Candy beets with pine and wild cabbage seeds

Matsutake, celeriac and quinoa

Spinach and seaweed salad with bitter orange and nettle dressing

Cod & trout

Cauliflower cheese & raw kale

Angelica posset with raw wild berries and beetroot honey

MUSIC

In our home, we listen to the the radio, Radio Aalto and Alvarpið in the two equally impossible languages, suomi and íslensku.

For the music, we collaborate with Nordic Playlist. Every week, a trusted artist or tastemaker will compile a 10-track playlist consisting of two of their favourite tunes from each Nordic country

The sound architecture in our home is by Lexter Sound Architects. They put it perfectly: 

“In the same way that furnishing and lighting can set an atmosphere and ambience in a room, so can sound.”

LAURITZ AUCTION 

Many of the items on display at WE LIVE HERE can be bought on auction at Lauritz.com. The auctions run until the 12th of February.

The auction house Lauritz.com is a pioneer in online auctions whose vision is to democratize the auction business by making art and design more accessible to the modern customer. Lauritz.com is passionate about visionary design, art, interiors and genuine craftsmanship.

 Visitors in Stockholm as well as design enthusiasts around the world now have the opportunity to bid on the objects featured in the We Live Here exhibition.

 See items on auction and place bid here.