Jenny Nordberg

Millions of containers frequently cross the ocean. They contain goods that are produced in one part of the world to be consumed in another. An ordinary container transport from China to the EU takes around 45 days. During the pandemic the system has been disrupted – at the same time as internet shopping has increased, a shortage of containers has occurred, prices for freight has increased and lots of goods have gotten stuck in different ports all over the world. In the darkness inside the containers there are toasters, garden furniture, plastic clogs and sunglasses tightly packed, passively waiting to reach their destination.

Designer Jenny Nordberg wants to create a change from within. With humour and unpredictability, she undertakes subjects many people prefer to avoid – phenomena that we know are unsustainable but completely integrated in our life style. The amount of goods being shipped from other parts of the world to the EU countries in diesel engine ships, is so extensive that transports make out 25 % of our carbon dioxide emissions. In the exhibition Active Cargo, created especially for Vandalorum, Nordberg raises the question: What would happen if the long, energy-intensive shipping across the world was not just transportations but also the actual manufacturing of the products?

For the exhibition, Nordberg has built machines, which are all imitating movements that the goods are exposed to at different ways of transport – the rolling waves at sea, the shaking on bumpy roads and the unintended drops when goods are being reloaded. Nordberg will regularly be present in the exhibition to run the machines and produce unique objects by means of the different movements. The material being used is waste from local industries.

Jenny Nordberg (b. 1978) has a MFA in Industrial Design from the Faculty of Engineering, Lund University and is based in Skåne. Her work is interdisciplinary to widen the idea of design. She is driven by the search for alternatives to mass production. She combines brutalism with minimalism, often with chance as an important element. She is represented in collections at among others Nationalmuseum, Malmö Art Museum and Vitra Design Museum, and has received numerous prizes, f ex Designer of the Year at Swedish Design Awards by Rum 2022

Curator: Elna Svenle

Thanks to: The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Swedish Arts Council, Region Jönköping County, Värnamo municipality, Vandalorum Partners, Doxa, Stolab

^{Photo: Patrik Lindell}