Annika Skaarup Larsen
Email: asl@designmuseum.dk, annla@sdu.dk
SDU and Designmuseum Danmark, Ny Carlsberg PhD fellowship
In the decades following World War II, Danish weavers, textile printers, artists and architects began collaborating with textile companies in the development of designed interior textiles. Focusing on the themes of gender, production, and materiality, this project traces the shift from artisanal, workshop-based production to industrial mass production, and explores how the new role of the industrial textile designer was defined, performed, and negotiated during the transition.
Joachim Allouche
Email: jallo@sdu.dk
Danish Glass after 1950
SDU and Museum of Southeast Denmark, Ny Carlsberg PhD fellowship
In the second half of the 20th century, Danish glass design got its own identity; this happened as a reaction to foreign competition that employed an increasingly sophisticated production apparatus capable of making machine-made glass. The design style, which empathized glass as a manifestation of craft and visual designers while still being affordable, would remain until the 21st century when the industry got hit by a crisis, which resulted in the foreclosure of the last Danish glasswork.
The project, Danish Glass after 1950, aims to explore how Danish glass design and industry mutually affect each other and how this interaction impacted the industry's development and final demise in 2008.
Kristian Roland Larsen
Email: krlar@trapholt.dk
Mediation and Materiality in Wegner's Furniture Design
SDU and Trapholt Museum of Art and Design, New Carlsberg Postdoctoral Fellowship
The project will illuminate the relations between entrepreneurship, mediation, and (new)materialism within the practice of Danish furniture designer Hans J. Wegner (1914–2007). This approach aims not only to deepen insights into a central figure of the golden age of Danish furniture design but also to uncover the values that shaped Wegner’s practice. The project will explore Wegner’s roles related to quality assurance, visual mediation methods, and his relationship with materials. The research will culminate in a major exhibition on Wegner at Trapholt in 2027.
Susanne Bruhn
Email: susannebruhn@live.com
Between Art and Mass Production
Axel Salto and the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory | SDU and CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art, Ny Carlsberg PhD fellowship
This research project examines the artist’s role and Salto’s collaboration with the company during the 1950s. The project explores the media discourse and the visual mediations of this partnership in connection with international design exhibitions such as Triennale di Milano, Design in Scandinavia, 1954–57, and The Arts of Denmark. Viking to Modern, 1960–61.
Keywords: Danish Modern, design exhibition, mediation, design culture
Grant from Augustinus Foundation
Made in Denmark. Production history as cultural heritage and sustainable literacy (2026–2029)
Museum Sydøstdanmark, Museum Midtjylland, Museum Kolding, CLAY Keramikmuseum Danmark and SDU. Project leader: Anders V. Munch, SDU, avm@sdu.dk
The automatization and outsourcing of Danish industrial manufacture in the second half of the 20th century have left citizens with very little knowledge of production. This lack also weakens the insight in products, material qualities and maintenance, and makes it difficult to expect responsible consumer behaviour. Denmark is an extreme case, both of outsourcing and overconsumption. While many factories have closed and left no traces of production, design museums contain collections documenting manufacturers in textiles, metalware, and ceramics, which make us able to track developments in production conditions and changes in product quality, usability, and durability. The team will investigate the Danish cases of Dranella Fashion, Kähler Ceramics, Hans Hansen Silver and Royal Copenhagen. Our project is urgent in collecting knowledge of production from older generations and share it to younger.