FACTORY exhibition

Copper Smithy, Fiskars
19.5.-15.9.2019
Mon-Sun 11-18

Onoma summer exhibition for 2019 is called FACTORY and it has been curated by Switzerland based design professional Anniina Koivu. FACTORY is part of the Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale which will open for the first time in May.

The exhibition will reflect on the creative potential of the village as a “factory”, while looking into historical and contemporary production processes to present new perspectives on design making.

FACTORY reveals the diversity of contemporary design production through stories. These are the stories of selected objects that say something about the people who created them, their places of origin and just how many different ways there are of making things.

The starting point is the factory, the place where design is being made. Factories are places of creation: typically, a workshop or large-scale plant, today design production can also be found in high-tech laboratories, bio-reactors or even outdoors, at the beach.

Factories are as diverse as the roles of the people who work in them. Here the craftsman, the designer and the producer are in constant dialogue. Sometimes their roles intertwine, overlap or even merge. There are tinkerers and makers, explorers and inventors, scientists and storytellers, rationalists and functionalists.

Factories combine history with progress. A guardian of memory and heritage, it is a place that preserves traditional manufacturing processes. But factories are never stagnant. They are constantly evolving. A historical manufacturer reinvents itself as a research center and becomes a place of experimentation. A traditional carpentry workshop takes advantage of the most diverse modern tools. New technologies are not a threat to the craftsman’s livelihood. Rather, they are welcome tools for the craftsman who is constantly trying to improve their work.

Featuring projects created by members of the local Cooperative of Artisans, Designers and Artists (ONOMA) alongside projects by guest designers – both Finnish and international craftsmen and manufacturers – FACTORY invites visitors to step inside the factory. While factories are the places in which the everyday objects that surround us are created, many of us are unfamiliar with what contemporary design manufacturing actually looks like. FACTORY hopes to change that.

Copper Smithy, Fiskars19.5.-15.9.2019Mon-Sun 11-18

Copper Smithy, Fiskars
19.5.-15.9.2019
Mon-Sun 11-18