Exclusive preview - Artek and Formafantasma's "Forest Collection"

A deeper view of design

This year's guest of honor at Stockholm Furniture Fair - Formafantasma - was founded in 2009 by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin. Formafantasma is a research-based design studio that investigates the ecological, historical, political and social forces that shape today's design. Their goal is to deepen knowledge of our natural and constructed environment, and to use their observations to call for transformative interventions through design. Their work spans research, curation, exhibitions and product design, and over the years they have worked with brands such as Hermès, Fendi and Max Mara, and exhibited at galleries such as Galleria Giustini/Stagetti Roma and Gallery Libby Sellers.

A shared interest in the material of wood

In its exhibition Cambio at the Serpentine Galleries in London in 2020, Formafantasma visualized the results of its ongoing research on forestry and the timber industry in an era of industrialization and environmental change. The exhibition received a lot of attention and shortly afterwards a collaboration with Artek was initiated, where the conclusions from Cambio would be applied to Artek's supply chain.

With roots in the Finnish forests

Finnish Artek was founded in 1935 by four young idealists: Alvar and Aino Aalto, Marie Gullischsen and Nils-Gustav Hahl. Their goal was "to sell furniture and promote a modern culture of life through exhibitions and other educational approaches". Today, the motto of the founding quartet still lives on - Artek is one of the world's most established contemporary design brands, developing products at the intersection of design, architecture and art. Artek has always had a close connection to the source of raw materials on which most of their products depend - the forest. The wood for an Artek product is never cut further than a 450 km radius from its own sawmill in Viitsaari.

Sustainable aesthetics

So what happened when Formafantasma reviewed Artek's value chain? Well - a subtle yet important change, which was as much a change in process as it was a change in the perception of what is aesthetically pleasing. In collaborative discussions, Artek's selection process for what wood was deemed fit to be used in the manufacture of products was reworked - and a more generous approach was taken to utilize more of the raw material. The result is 'wild birch', which embraces rather than rejects the imperfections that wood can exhibit: color changes, insect trails, knots and marks.

In terms of our efforts to encourage more ecological thinking in production, the collaboration we have had with Artek in recent years is the most fruitful. And the most interesting thing is that it is almost an invisible intervention - but I think it is one of our best works.

– Formafantasma's Simone Farresin in Ark Journal, 2023.

Through this wider and 'wilder' selection process, more of the wood is used, resulting in more carbon dioxide still being sequestered by being used in the product, but also in the trees left in the forest, as fewer are needed for manufacturing. The products also become, thanks to their marks and variations, completely unique and have an inimitable charm, challenging the notion of what is aesthetically 'correct'.

Exclusive premiere in Stockholm

The first Artek product in "wild birch" was launched in September 2023: a jubilee version of Alvar Aalto's Stool 60. In the future, the material will be used for more products, under the collective name "Forest Collection", to be launched in the autumn of 2024. However, a special production of a selection of these - Aalto Table 82A, Bench 153A and Stool E60 - is already being previewed at Formafantasma's stand at the Stockholm Furniture Fair, and in the window of the Nordiska Galleriet in Stockholm.

Numbered and signed by Formafantasma

The special editions for the stand are numbered and signed by Formafantasma, and are sold exclusively by us. From February 5 you can see the products in our showroom at Nybrogatan 11 in Stockholm, and from February 15 they will also be available in our showrooms in Gothenburg and Malmö, as well as at Nordiska Galleriet Archives in Frihamnen in Stockholm.

Discover more from Artek here