Helsinki Design Week in the Design Museum

Helsinki Design Week, the largest multidisciplinary design festival in the Nordic countries, is once again taking over the city, the web and the Design Museum. The new gallery exhibition Jenny Nordberg: Strategies for Moving Freely will open at the beginning of Helsinki Design Week, and the summer’s main exhibition Kustaa Saksi: In the Borderlands will be open throughout the event week.

The festival theme for 2023 is “Once upon a time”, and the Design Museum participates in the theme with various events and exhibitions. “Design is successful when it resonates and makes us wonder, laugh, breathe and look forward to what will happen next“ Programme Director of Helsinki Design Week and Weekly Anni Korkman writes about the annual theme of the festival.

You can get to know the Design Museum’s festival program on this page. Welcome aboard!

Design Museum’s events 7.–17.9.2023

NODUS Sustainable Design Talks: The Invisibilities in the Production-Consumption System of Fashion
Thursday 7.9. at 4:15 p.m.–5:45 p.m. in the Design Museum
Free entry / Pre-registration

NODUS TALKS series is organized by NODUS Design for Sustainability Research Group of Aalto University, bringing together researchers and practitioners on topics relevant to design, innovation and sustainability. Presentations will be followed by a panel discussion, both held in English.

Natalia Moreira is an interdisciplinary researcher of fashion, management, and engineering, and a project manager with a circular and systemic focus on sustainable materials and their value chains. She advises global fashion brands and carries out research on sustainability for action-oriented projects. She contributes to vital academic debates on fashion and textile. The event is free, but please register as seats are limited.

Paula Sarsama is Infinited Fiber Company’s Program Manager, a circular economy enthusiast with passion for finding solutions to decrease the environmental impact of the fashion industry. Her focus is on creating collaborations with other stakeholders in the circular value chain and ecosystem, with an aim of making circularity in textiles an everyday reality.

Lunch Talk: Jenny Nordberg: Strategies for Moving Freely
Friday 8.9. at 1 p.m.–2 p.m. in the Design Museum Gallery
Participation with museum ticket / Pre-registration

The Design Museum’s Lunch Talk introduces the exhibition Jenny Nordberg: Strategies for Moving Freely on the opening day, September 8, 2023, from 13:00 to 13:45. Nordberg arrives at the Design Museum’s Gallery to talk about their work and introduce the exhibition. With pre-registration, sign up for the Lunch Talk here.

This year’s Helsinki Design Week will kick off with the opening of the Gallery exhibition Strategies for Moving Freely by Swedish designer Jenny Nordberg (b. 1978). This will be the first solo exhibition by Nordberg in Finland. She is known for her insightful perspective on mass production, over-consumption and the duty of designers to take action to confront these and other issues. Nordberg’s works often take a humorous, almost peculiar form. Rather than taking a judgmental stance, she has a positive, solution-oriented approach to serious themes. The exhibition includes a number of Nordberg’s recent works, completed during the years of the pandemic.

Post Design Festival
Sat 9.9.2023 / In English
External ticket sales

Design often finds itself tasked with constructing an illusion of authority and control—tangible and intangible. What are the boundaries of our agency as visual makers? What forces are enmeshed in, and perpetuated by creative practices, creative work structures and the images we produce and consume?

The fourth chapter, POWER, will take place from 8–9 September 2023 at Designmuseo in central Helsinki, Finland, bringing together design thinkers, makers and doers from all over the world for a last tangle. Together with our project partner, Grafia, we will examine and discuss the complex power relations within visual communication. LINE-UP: Noura Tafeche, Manuel Raeder, Chiara Di Leone, Other Means and Laura Pappa. Buy your ticket here.

Introduction to Alusta Pavilion 
Wed 13.9.2023 at 5.30pm
In English / Free entry

Alusta research pavilion was built in the spring of 2022 and will be dismantled in the fall of 2023. It explores nature-culture relations and offers a place for encounters between humans and non-human animals in urban space. Welcome to hear about the themes of the project, the future of the pavilion and to share your own experiences.

Speakers are the architects of the pavilion Elina Koivisto ja Maiju Suomi.

Office Pong
Wednesday 13.9. at 5 p.m.–10 p.m.
With invite only

Office Pong – an annual Ping Pong Tournament for Designers and Architects. By invitation only.

Design Workshop for Families: Dreamscape
Saturday 16.9.2023 at 1 p.m.–3 p.m. nonstop
Participation with a museum ticket or Museum card, unemployed and under 18 free entry

What does design look like? How does it feel? How does the work of art convey thoughts, feelings, dreams and their moods?
Design Workshops for Families inspire and guide children and their adults to make and experience design together.

The Dreamscape design workshop draws its inspiration from the main exhibition Kustaa Saksi: In the Borderlands. Together, we will be inspired to look at Saksi’s rich visual language, the stories it conveys and experience the works of the exhibition. The work takes place under the guidance of a director in the workshop Studio. In the workshop, the technique is collage work, which is used to create your own dreamscape with the help of colors and shapes. The workshop is for everyone and does not require any special skills. Recommended for ages 6 and up, ages 10 and under adult supervision only. Participation with a museum ticket or Museum card, unemployed and under 18 free entry.

Guided tours to Kustaa Saksi: In the Borderlands -exhibition

Welcome to the guided tours of the Design Museum’s main summer exhibition Kustaa Saksi: In the Borderlands. The tour is included in the price of the museum ticket.

9.9. guidance in Finnish at 2 pm and in Swedish at 3 pm
12.9. guidance in Finnish at 5 p.m
16.9. guidance in Finnish at 2 pm and in Russian at 3 pm

The new main exhibition for the summer season opens up the world of artist and designer Kustaa Saksi (b. 1975), who is renowned for his textile designs. The exhibition Kustaa Saksi: In the Borderlands includes a wide selection of his textile art works, created with jacquard weaving technique between 2013 and 2023. A number of large works specially commissioned for the exhibition will also be on show.

A&DO Lab – Learning Centre for Architecture and Design

A&DO Lab is a touring learning environment and exhibition focused on themes of design and architecture. The exhibition space located in two containers challenges you think of what kind of architecture and design promotes high-quality everyday life and sustainable development. In the future, what kind of an environment would you like to live in? What are the features of a good local environment?

The goal of this exhibition is to encourage you to take a critical look in your environment.

The exhibition is open to the public
Mon–Fri at 15:00–16:00 (weeks 33–37)
Mon–Fri 12:00–16:00 (week 38)
Sat 10 am–4 pm (weeks 33–38)

A&DO Labra’s open public guided tours (45 min)
on Saturdays at 1 pm and 2 pm

Exhibitions

Jenny Nordberg: Strategies for Moving Freely
8.9.2023−31.12.2023

This year’s Helsinki Design Week will kick off with the opening of the Gallery exhibition Strategies for Moving Freely by Swedish designer Jenny Nordberg (b. 1978). This will be the first solo exhibition by Nordberg in Finland. She is known for her insightful perspective on mass production, over-consumption and the duty of designers to take action to confront these and other issues.

Nordberg’s works often take a humorous, almost peculiar form. Rather than taking a judgmental stance, she has a positive, solution-oriented approach to serious themes. The exhibition includes a number of Nordberg’s recent works, completed during the years of the pandemic.

Kustaa Saksi: In the Borderlands
5.5.−15.10.2023

Design Mueum’s current main exhibition introduces us to the world of artist and designer Kustaa Saksi (b. 1975), who is renowned for his textile designs. The exhibition Kustaa Saksi: In the Borderlands includes a wide selection of his textile art works, created with jacquard weaving technique between 2013 and 2023. A number of large works specially commissioned for the exhibition are also on show.

The exhibition In the Borderlands explores moments between reality and illusion, which are the starting point for many of Saksi’s works. First Symptoms is a series of works in which the artist visualizes his experiences of the visual disturbances that often accompany migraines with aura, while the works in the Hypnopompic series explore the hallucinations experienced in the moments between sleep and wakefulness.