EVERYTHING NEEDN'T BE "ELEVATED"
and, like, going low is a necessary crucial unmissable element of décorworld presentation
Dear Readers,
We emerge now from yet another International Décor Scenario, a triplet of party days and nights in Copenhagen.
First of all, our absolute f*cking undying commitment to BO-BI BAR remains. It is one of our absolutely favorite places to LOSE SENSE OF TIME and imbibe. It is a dive.
And that must lead us to discuss :
THE ONLY CORRECT FORMULA FOR A DÉCOR WEEK
which has been ad hoc vetted by FOR SCALE dream-pal Kelsey K., and we shall unpick the third and, frankly, most frequently under-appreciated element.
The formula, which is totally and completely unimpeachable so don’t even f*cking try, is:
We shall give examples from Copenhagen which are:
(1) i. Aarticles, which is let’s say a new ‘gallery’ there (Fred A. and Kasia S.); also ii. “DISPLAY/DISPLAYED” by FOR SCALE dream-weaver Rhya J.-W. [Together this little group of people are gonna f*cking RUN the show in Copenhagen for 100% so get 2 know them pls)
(2) Tekla, just showing some quilts that are like… nice? but ultimately they are quilts as any other. but the point is more like, they had some spatially super generous and obviously top tier quality way of showing them that just like, really shoved the danish-ness of it all down ur throat and then u could have lunch next door at Apollo Bar and that’s pretty much what you need. It’s like, the big boys really should be giving u a sort of sense of occasion…
Okay, and then
(3) !!!!!!!
We will get to this, and one other…
SUFFICE IT TO SAY … We were energized. and this #3 is about energy (and we don’t mean like, some late-nite party energy)… anyway, it’s because:
The amount of Good Energy in the décorworld is not constant.
There are little periods, even years, where you are far less motivated or enthused by “what’s happening" a.k.a. all the “happenings”, and there’s really very little for you to feed off of. And the last period for us was, really, like sort of just before 2020 we think… where there was a lot of “cool” things happening, we guess they were cool?, with like, people making mushroom leathers or whatever the f*ck. and, like, Alcova was launched (2018). But, those sorts of things seem to frame an existing décorworld energy, not produce new energy. Like, the Premier Milanese Exhibitor Of Small Décor Ventures, a.k.a. aforementioned Alcova, still doing whatever it can to ‘elevate’, using, like, the Villa Borsani as a magnet et cetera. Previously it was the sort of boring-standard (SORRY!) of putting things into raw industrial spaces (UKURANT group show in cph; the sort of simultaneous basic.space thing in London… very very very “florals for spring”)
It seemed to want to make sort of scrappy people appear Highly Professional and ergo ‘worthy’. That was the strategy. Go high.
And, it’s like, maybe we just want to stay low?
There is so much energy in low!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have become slaves to needing the random and amateur to be filtered through some tight aesthetic vision, like NFS (whom, for the record, we really like), or for some wood patchwork needing to be Piet Hein Eek and not just like, some do-it-oneself bed or coffee table of discarded palettes or whatever. (like ADAM SACKLER a.k.a. ADAM DRIVER in GIRLS (2012-2017))
Lowness in décor has become lost as an art, because lowness admits that u don’t have to be rich to have taste or style? i.e. that you can be poor. everything is wealth p*rn rn. (Maybe it was always?)
What about like, the milk crate for vinyl??????????? — PARTY GIRL (1995) and the home of MARY A.K.A. PARKER POSEY…
Very vagabond!!! And also, like, some kind of odd folk-arty bed-as-altar and NOLA DARLING A.K.A. TRACY CAMILLA JOHNS of SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT (1986)…
Digressions but…
These breeeeeathe a sort of glorious autonomy, Total Agency, non-materialistic life that probably we could do with a bit more of. We are so, sort of, “Resolved” these days and it feels too Internet-sleek, frictionless-commercial. Like, this is made for a great photo and oh well, like, we also like taking good photos (or trying to).
DÉCORWORLD POWER PLANTS x2
For us, there were two Scenarios in Copenhagen that really were producers of energy, and that is very aspiration to us, and we think — and this is a message to our vast audience of industry folk — a very important message about, like, our role as décorleaders.
(1) SELL OUT
It’s a little décorstore in a vending machine. In Maria’s kiosk which is truly just random even if also simultaneously it’s-been-around-forever-ness of what then becomes “an institution”
A project by BRUNO P. C., FREDERIK B., GUILLAUME G., MASSIMO S. (who have a major overlap with the boys who are prototyping some very super top tier speaker, idea- and look- and sound-wise, that we will f*cking neeeeeeeed as soon as they are out or even before)
We missed getting anything ‘cause we showed up like, at some leisurely time, and we didn’t realize this would be a total phenomenon and people would be waiting 1hr+ to get little bitsy things but they did. And it was a slap in the décorweek face where it’s like “oh yeah, REMEMBER FUN?” — a fun of participation and of accessibility of Thing and of the vibe of “me and my 30 friends and friends-of-friends put this together”-ness, that is not like ‘commissioning’ per se it is way more circumstantial and kinetic and veeeeeeeeeery few things have that because they try instead for a sense of “curated”. (We like real curation.)
There is much much much greater room for a sense of "HAPPENSTANCE” !!!
(2) AT ODDS
Which was like a pheeeeenomenal (to us) DIY décor criticism zine making situation that we are absolutely livid we didn’t come up with first. instead it was Silvio R. and Sina S.
They plucked a tonnnnnnnnn of extremely good writing of years past and let u photocopy them and gave u little bits to clasp it together in your own mag. !!!
We got stuff from:
"FROM ECLECTICISM TO DOUBT” by Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici
“MARI, SOTTSASS AND THE PEONY” by Deyan Sudjic, Enzo Mari, Ettore Sottsass, and Stefano Casciani (a discussion of flowers over dinner!!!)
“SOME COMMENTS ON PHILIPPE STARCK’S LATEST LAMPS, GUNS” but a tone of people, f*cking love that Martí Guixé just says “It is just another lamp.”
A paid ad by Enzo Mari in Domus 2004 and then another paid ad that was a response to that ad from six issues later by Eugenio Perazza … you gotta get into this petty décorworld sh*t, it’s so good!!!!
“SHIRO KURAMATA: PURPLE SHADOWS” by Andrea Branzi
… and then we had to get to dinner. But with a takeaway we will spend REAL time with… not just a tote, or a something-or-other. It's something we made and care about.
But anyway - what we appreciate and NEED is that also a reminder that “CRITICISM” is so weird and meandering and also FUNNY and it is sort of rare that people really give their opinions publicly anymore and frankly that was a better time and décor was way better SO SUE US. because now someone posts some work and you essentially just get friends say “BRAVA, GIRL!!!!” and nobody really questions them ever
So then u end up with, like, this: toylands for influencers.
And, debate is like a décorworld nuclear reactor.
(reminds us a little of this site that has compilted design manifestos.)
Well, that is us for the day.
We think FOR SCALE might start coming out on TUESDAYS… right?
X
I think the real issue 🤓☝️ is that there’s a difference between being a critic and being a hater, but social media has blurred the two (now that anyone can call themselves a critic, it’s hard to tell what’s insightful criticism vs simple hating). It’s a paradox because we all agree hating is bad AND criticism is necessary. But who wants to risk being seen as a hater?
So sharp. But also, let’s stop equating elevated marketing with elevated product. Agencies, marketing teams, brands are doing too much telling, often through smoke and mirrors. Let’s allow the product to be what it is.