Sophie Dietrich recently gave a paper at the Rovaniemi conference The North as a Meaning in Design and Art.
This paper recently presented on the Aesthetics of Darkness, by Sophie Dietrich went very well. This international Conference on the History of Design and Design Culture commemorated the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Tapio Wirkkala and Rut Bryk on 30–31 October 2015 in Korundi House of Culture, Rovaniemi, Finland.
Organised by Art and Cultural Studies, University of Lapland and Rovaniemi Art Museum in collaboration with the Tapio Wirkkala Rut Bryk Foundation.
The year 2015 marked 100 years since the birth of Finnish designer and artist Tapio Wirkkala (1915–1985). Wirkkala and his spouse, ceramic artist Rut Bryk (1916–1999), had a special relationship to the North and Lapland. The nature, tranquillity and people of Lapland offered them inspiration for their work and a reprieve from what were often hectic international careers.
As Wirkkala said in the journal Domus in 1981, “Lapland has become a place where I can charge my batteries. It has become a lifeline that I seize when I feel like I am drowning. When I become distressed at seeing Europe’s opulence and all of its side-effects, the sweaty smell of selfishness and ambition...when I feel like I am drowning and the pain is intense, I leave it all behind and go to Lapland. This has become a means for me to concentrate and survive… My world of art… it is my way of life and the quality of my work. It has grown through the experiences that people in the North have every day. The nature and the people there share the same continuous process of development. It is a recurring process – winter, spring, summer, autumn – yet always new and surprising.”
“The North as a Meaning in Design and Art” offered an opportunity to explore the significance of the North, drawing on the example of the work of Tapio Wirkkala and Rut Bryk. The focal question was: What has the North meant to design and art – to individual artists and their art and to national and regional design and art cultures? During the conference an exhibition presented the art of Tapio Wirkkala which will be opened in the Korundi House of Culture, part of the Rovaniemi Art Museum. This exhibition was arranged by the Tapio Wirkkala Rut Bryk Foundation.
The conference consisted of keynote lectures and discussions of working papers. It also offered an optional one-to-two-day programme (including excursions, dealing with northern design and art).
This conference focussed on the meaning of the North in industrial arts, design or visual arts, and probed the significance of the North for artists and designers and their work. On a broader level, it examined the importance of the North in conscious efforts by national or regionally identified industrial arts or art to distinguish themselves in the field of Western industrial arts, design and visual art.
Additional information: Maija Mäkikalli, maija.makikalli@ulapland.fi