From February 8th to 12th we were in Stockholm to take part in an event dedicated to Italian design and to its relationship to Swedish style. The festival was called Tempo Italiano (“Italian Time”) and this year it was titled Double Myth, Creative dialogues between Italy and the Nordic Countries.
Here’s why we went there.
The Swedish festival celebrating Italian design and creativity
The Italian Cultural Institute C.M. Lerici in Stockholm has been organising the Tempo Italiano festival for 3 years now, as part of the Stockholm Design Week.
Its aim is to introduce the Swedish public to Italian design and its creativity, as well as to underline the beauty of the exchanges between Italy and Sweden. Southern and Northern Europe have indeed been influencing each other’s design and architecture for centuries, enhancing each other.
That’s why, as well as the other events of Tempo Italiano, the Italian Cultural Institute hosted an exhibition on furniture designed by Giò Ponti for Sweden and by Swedish designers for Italian companies. As well as the fabrics produced by Tessitura Bevilacqua between the 1920s and 1940s for Swedish projects: the Three Crowns lampas, the Deco soprarizzo velvet, the Copenhagen brocatelle and the Svezia lampas.
Italian interior fabrics made in Venice with Swedish designs
Not long ago we’ve told you how the relationship between Bevilacqua and Sweden started, thanks to Cesare Bevilacqua and his wife.
Thanks to them, in the Twenties, we met Maja Sjöström. By collaborating with her, we made the Three Crowns lampas you see above, which we’ve shown to visitors at Double Myth.
The designs of this luxury fabric are typical of the Art Nouveau, because they’re rich in stylised flowers and plants. But, at the same time, they’re finely graceful: the lines are mainly curved, even on trunks, and the leaves are heart-shaped. Besides, the dark ground contributes to the softening of these plain natural elements.
The Three Crowns lampas was used in the furniture of the Three Crowns room (hence the name) and the Council Chamber of the Stockholm City Hall.
Maja Sjöström, to design this and other interior fabrics, drew her inspiration from the landscapes of her homeland. But she didn’t merely copy them: she put into the fabric the whole world of myths and legends Swedish culture is made of.
And now these designs bursting with Swedish spirit are part of our archive, and they keep on being loved and chosen for upholstery by Italians, too.
So this proves that there’s been a dialogue between Sweden and Italy. And it’s ongoing.
