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Plusdesign Gallery in Milan showed ‘Bakelite Borgo’ during the Saloni di Mobile. The piece is a series of house-shaped boxes that can be individually arranged. The pieces are made from Bakelite.

Here is a clip by Abitare that explains the project:

We visited the award-winning Siglufjordur Icelandic Herring Era Museum, only a stone’s throw from our studio. It charts the rise and decline of the former ‘Herring Capital of the World’ and the great ‘Herring Adventure’ that lasted from the 1867 to 1968.

Hundreds of herring barrels being packed in Siglufjordur harbour. The photograph was taken in the heyday of the herring adventure, long before people started to give thought to the idea that the stocks might not last forever.

The museum consists of three buildings, showcasing different aspects of life and times in the herring capital. We particularly liked the boathouse with its rebuilt pier and fishing boats. The display was developed together with theatre set designers and includes everything from projections to sounds and smells of the harbour.

Here a view of Siglufjordur in the early 1900s…

— and here for comparison the town at maximum capacity. The population had risen from 380 to just under 4000 people. Today, the harbour structures and most of the factories have been dismantled the town has shrunk to 1200 inhabitants.

Another glimpse of the museum, a rebuilt fishing storehouse.

And a final view of Siglufjordur at the start of the herring boom.

A survey of contemporary German design, curated by Max Borka at MARTa Herford in Germany, 14. February – 19. April 2009

Together with Pieke Bergmans, Studio Libertiny, Raw Edges and Liliana Ovalle I was invited to spend a long weekend in Turin to discuss notions of nature and artifice. We gave presentations about our work and facilitated a design workshop for University students from Turin. The residency was organised by Barbara Brondi and Marco Raino of BRH+ Studio.

The results and documentation of the residency will be published in Interni magazine soon.

A big thank you to the team of the Residence du Parc and to Barbara and Marco!

Luci d’Artista Projects in the city of Torino

Daniel Buren’s “Tappeto volante� (1999) and Studio Libertiny

Two of the students presenting their work

The Conformitory is designed to make safe elements of nature. It acknowledges our desire to connect with flora, fauna and the environment. However, a thorough risk assessment has shown that any contact needs to be controlled. Visit the Conformitory where we process nature to conform to health and safety standards.

Julia Lohmann & Gero Grundmann

Best known for her elegant lamps made from sheep’s stomachs, designer Julia Lohmann will be resident in the Embankment Galleries’ Studio with Gero Grundmann, for ‘The Conformitory: Nature Contained’, as part of ‘Wouldn’t it be nice… Wishful thinking in art and design’.

Working busily from inside a forensic tent, Lohmann and Grundmann will be manufacturing sanitised, ‘health and safety approved’ versions of the natural world – laminated leaves, perfected branches, nut-free nuts and more…

The Conformitory at ‘Wouldn’t it be nice… Wishful thinking in art and design’, Somerset House, Strand London WC2R 1LA, 27 November – 7 December 2008

For press enquiries please contact: Tom.Coupe@SomersetHouse.org.uk