The exhibition 'LØSNINGER' at TENT - London Design Festival presents selected works by 22 recent graduates from KADK, inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 'LØSNINGER' showcases how innovative and courageous design solutions can contribute to a more sustainable world.
How do you make a chair from salmon skin, turning industrial waste into a sound design product? How do you design upholstered furniture for disassembly and reassembly, giving furniture a longer life span? And how can the fashion industry make us reflect upon gender equality and loosen up patterns inherited through generations?
Young Danish designers take on the major global challenges in 'LØSNINGER' -that showcases 22 selected projects from this year's graduation exhibition at KADK. The selection of projects present courageous, original design solutions (= løsninger) to today´s challenges – such as scarce resources, climate change and global inequalities. These issues are addressed by the 17 UN SDG’s which have served as a source of inspiration for the projects.
Sustainability with perspective
Curator of TENT, Jimmy MacDonald, comments:
'KADK is actively taking on global challenges in design education, training their students to understand and see the bigger picture from a little country. In an Instagram world of design expect a more analogue but more thoughtful considered approach in the work presented in the KADK exhibition.'
By moving way beyond the strong Danish design tradition, the designers are pointing to a sustainable way of producing and consuming design products without losing the strong Danish feel of simplicity, natural materials and a rooted democratic approach. The key words are slow design, long lasting concepts, upcycling, local production based on the urgent need for change – in short, a new truly engaged design with a mission for the future.
The exhibition presents furniture, textile, fashion, animations, glass and ceramics - in total 22 projects by designers selected from appr. 300 graduate students. Several exhibitors have won prizes for their work, have exhibited abroad and are now having works in production.
The exhibition reflects that KADK a year ago decided to dedicate three academic years to the UN Global Goals for a Sustainable future. The exhibit at TENT is the first international manifestation of this ambition.