When invited by Artipelag to curate an exhibition just outside Stockholm, the organisation requested a site-specific concept, related to the landscape, water and earth. Several scenarios promised potential yet it became clear that this was our chance to bring together designers and artists that are investigating new ways of producing ideas; innovative thinkers that are able to turn around our mentality, progressive people that develop a body of work that leads the way to another world in the making – creating a horizon of hope.

The extreme beauty of the galleries and its surrounding landscape can be seen as a friendly competitor to culture, a formidable aesthetic force to be reckoned with. Therefore we felt that as curators we should bend with this beauty, wave with its grasses, go with the flow of its waters. The installations are chosen to complement and commend the surroundings, merging emerging ecological design processes with the enchanting landscape.

Most of the works on display are made with human hands and forged from natural resources, where these contemporary alchemists are transforming matter to give new life to old recipes and create new perceptions. Landscaping the design like archipelagos and almost islands enabled us to bring together a generation of thinkers that lead the way to another world.

Text: Lidewij Edelkoort & Philip Fimmano

Photographs: Jean-Baptiste Beranger

EARTH MATTERS remains on view at Artipelag until May 3, 2015

www.artipelag.se

purchase the EARTH MATTERS book (€ 18 + shipping)