Objects for 15 plants (Petitot's Dream)
84h x 120w x 120d in
Glazed Ceramics and plants
2022
Foto: Moran Moran Gallery

Anders Herwald Ruhwald. Photo: Moran Moran Gallery

Theme:
Outlook

Artist-in-residence, exhibitions and competitions in international contexts have always been part of the DNA of craft artists and designers. What stories do they take with them? What knowledge do they bring back home?

Foreword

Gazing at the World

By Editorial board

Artist residencies, international exhibitions, inspirational travelling, jobs, and collaborative projects. Danish craft artists and designers have a great tradition of looking abroad for development, collaboration opportunities and insight. Both in their own practice and in understanding the world's different materials, techniques and cultures. As early as the 1950s, Sigvard Bernadotte and architect Acton Bjørn worked with international designers. Lars Dybdahl describes in Formkraft that their ‘transatlantic outlook’ has left deep cultural traces in Denmark.

Sissel Wathne

Theme article

The Transatlantic Outlook: About Bernadotte & Bjørn’s ‘American’ design practice

By Lars Dybdahl, design researcher and author

A design historical comment.

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Interview

Vibeke Rohland: You can’t argue in symbols and colours

By Mette Kierstein, freelance journalist

Two trips to Mexico have had a crucial impact on the textile artist's expression. In this interview, she talks about her fascination with Mexican visual culture.

Vibeke Rohland

Reviews

Marianne Nielsen

There’s a good reason to keep an eye on Ceramic Brussels

By Sisse Bro, MA in Visual Culture and freelance writer

Maria Bang Espersen

A fragile world

By Marie-Louise Høstbo, Architect, Creative consultant

Spacious Cph. Alt hænger sammen med alt. Foto Jan søndergaard

Portals to other consciousnesses

By Torben Weirup, writer

Speakers Corner

Thoughts from a recent graduate: we must protect the title for craft artists

By Sara Mirkhani, ceramicist and craft artist

Sara Mirkhani is a ceramist from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. She points to an unfortunate hierarchisation of the arts in Denmark and points out that we must protect the professionalism that comes with the title of craft artist (kunsthåndværker).

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Portræt af Sara Mirkhani. Foto: Kirstine Autzen

Interview

Hybrid identity and Danish values

By Sara Staunsager, curator at Trapholt

What is it like to build an international career and return to Denmark after 24 years abroad? Anders Herwald Ruhwald and Marie Herwald Hermann talk about their individual and joint journey to the USA and back again.

Q&A

Q&A with UKURANT: Practitioners across the country are immersing themselves in amazing things that deserve to be showcased

Over 200 craft artists and designers applied to the Biennale of Craft & Design 2025, of which 27 exhibitors were selected. The curatorial group UKURANT talks about trends in the applicant field and what they have chosen to prioritise for the upcoming Biennale exhibition.

UKURANT. Biennalen for Kunsthåndværk & Design 2025

Interview

Sia Hurtigkarl: Travelling with your craft puts you at eye level with other people in a completely different way

By Mette Kierstein, journalist

When meeting other cultures, designer Sia Hurtigkarl is challenged by her own history, learns more about her professionalism and gets an overload of inspiration. Here she talks about travelling to Nepal and India with craftsmanship as a common language.

Sia Hurtigkarl. Fotograf Dorte Krogh.

Conversation

The borderland of raw materials

By Ingrid Halland, Associate Professor of Aesthetics and Culture

Ceramist Sissel Wathne (b. 1981) has worked at the intersection of different boundaries in art and life: between traditional craft and industrial design, between fine art and decorative art, between Denmark and Norway, between history and innovation and between local roots and global influences. In order to navigate in this boundary zone, Wathne uses her own hands as her ethical and aesthetic compass. Associate Professor of Aesthetics and Culture at Aarhus University Ingrid Halland met Wathne for a conversation about stories, waste and surfaces.

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Interview

Breathing Membranes – meeting the beautiful and the disturbing

By Johanna Nyborg, freelance writer

Textile artist Julie Bach is in Greenland working on the exhibition Breathing Membranes. Here she talks about gutskins, the healing properties of sewing, physicality and presence: ‘An important part of the project is to meet and stand together and have our hands in the materials, and hopefully influence and learn from each other.’

Julie Bach, Breathing Membranes