Theme:
The Corridors of Power

Formkraft switches on a bright spotlight, illuminating the frameworks that help define contemporary craft and design. The theme The Corridors of Power explores the systems, structures, and decisions that shape the field of craft and design.

The Danish Arts Foundation plays a key role in ensuring time for focused work, depth, and artistic development for a wide range of practitioners. But how do the Foundation’s two committees within crafts and design actually operate? What does the responsibility of wielding influence feel like, and how do you ensure that the most deserving projects receive funding?

Formkraft speaks with former committee chair, art historian and curator Anne Blond; chair of the three-member committee, ceramicist Peder Rasmussen; committee member, textile designer Kirsten Nissen; project funding committee member, ceramicist Morten Løbner Espersen; and the current chair of the project funding committee, art historian and curator Anni Nørskov Mørch.

Craft artists should have a permanent seat at the table when municipal art councils make decisions. Ceramicist Nina Lund shares her experiences from working with the municipal visual arts council and explains why it’s vital to have committed ambassadors who can articulate what craft and design can contribute to our shared public spaces.

Artist, researcher, and consultant Marie Markman interviews herself about “power, systems, and money in the arts.” This is the sixth in an ongoing series of self-interviews begun in 2021, where she reflects on her own artistic practice and on art policy issues. Here, she advocates for greater solidarity across artistic disciplines.

A corridor of raw materials, waste, and consumption! We live in a society built on consumption—but where do the raw materials come from? And what happens to our understanding of products and materials when production is removed from local communities? Material flows, design history, and craft intersect in an interdisciplinary conversation between Associate Professor Ingrid Halland and Professor Kjetil Fallan.

Stay tuned for ongoing publications and find exhibition reviews at the bottom of this page.