Interview: Hege Henriksen on championing Norwegian craft

– by Anthony Leyton

Originally a jewellery designer, Hege Henrikson is project manager for Norwegian Crafts and one of the driving forces behind Structure. We spoke to her about the state of Norway’s design industry, what she hopes the show will achieve, and why Norwegian designers are drawn to creative collaboration…

The collaboration between Klubben, Norwegian Crafts and Jotun was established in 2015 with the exhibition Norwegian Presence. It was the first and the largest collaboration showing Norwegian design and crafts during FuoriSalone. Klubben had previously collaborated with Norwegian Crafts’ owners, the Norwegian Association of Arts and Crafts, on several projects with great success. The three-way collaboration with Jotun is a perfect match. As one of the world’s leading paint suppliers, they reach out to the same professionals within the design field as Norwegian Crafts and Klubben.

Our main goal with this exhibition is to promote the exhibitors and their work. Our main long-term goal is a strengthened position for Norwegian crafts and design in the international market. We hope for a broad press coverage of Norwegian craft and design in local and international design and interior press, and an increased number of Norwegian products in Norwegian and international sales channels. In addition, it is important for us to facilitate the professionalisation of participating craftspeople and designers, and to create opportunities for new collaborations.

The Norwegian design field has gained a stronger position the last few years. An increasing number of Norwegian designers are working with international manufacturers; in particular Danish brands like Hay, Menu and New Works. But there is still a lot of unexploited potential that this collaboration aims to do something about, by creating more awareness of what the Norwegian design field has to offer.

The crafts sector has a stronger position in its respective fields, and we are seeing an increased demand for Norwegian crafts. At Norwegian Crafts, we work strategically in market development to provide the artists with new arenas for exhibiting and selling their work. Participating with design fairs like FuoriSalone is part of this strategy.

Norway has only about five million inhabitants and there are not that many people in the design and furniture-production industry. So collaboration is necessary in order to get things happening. It might also be a result of our low level of hierarchy in the work environment. Employees are given a lot of freedom and are expected to contribute to the development of their companies. Perhaps this results in a more collaborative and open approach.

The exhibition will show prototypes and craft objects, and some projects that fall between these categories. It will be interesting to see the lamp that comes out of the new collaboration between Bjørn van der Berg and Falke Svatun. Anette Krogstad and Vera & Kyte are both working with ceramic series that concern the subject of serving food, though with very different approaches. The duo gunzler.polmar is working on a new interpretation of the classic water pitcher. And another duo, Kneip, are working on an interesting installation consisting of three different parts – a backdrop-table, a craft object and a lamp prototype.

Top Image: photos by Siren Laudal, Styling from Kråvik & D'Orazio. Below 1: Sara Wright Polmar, Between. 2: Kneip, Loen, Guage 3: Lars Fjetland Beller, Monstera.  4: günzler.polmar, Pour. 5: Barmen & Brekke, KVEIK