Travel as a Tool

The populations of the Nordic countries are among the most prolific travellers in the world, and travel has long played a significant role for designers and architects based here. Besides new ideas and impulses, journeys near and far have provided encounters with unfamiliar materials and manufacturing techniques, created exchanges of knowledge and craft traditions, as well as established new collaborations and opportunities. Travelling has also offered ways to escape the routines and obligations of everyday life, or even intolerable situations.

Travel as a Tool examines how over 40 designers and architects from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have incorporated travel into their practises, from the 1940s until today. This exhibition aims to show the importance of these journeys for the individual as well as for the profession at large, both in the Nordic context and in other parts of the world.

The predominant destinations for Nordic designers and architects have shifted over the decades. In this exhibition, journeys to over 20 different countries are represented — some that have lasted a few days, others several years. In order to shed light on the trips, the exhibition includes diaries, correspondence, sketchbooks, films, photographs, interviews and souvenirs. The focus is also on the works, products, buildings or projects that are a result of the journeys.

During the final stages of making Travel as a Tool, the world suddenly faced an almost complete stop to what is the subject of the exhibition, namely travelling. The Covid-19 pandemic caused borders to close (even between the Nordic countries) and made global mobility a risk in itself. The pandemic, as well as the increasingly alarming climate crisis, has put the necessity of travelling under scrutiny. Within design and architecture, travels are a prerequisite for certain exchanges and projects to happen at all. Yet, there is a growing movement towards evaluating each trip and its environmental impact, which in the future might lead to alternative ways of both moving around and collaborating internationally.

Participants in the exhibition: Alvar Aalto, Iman Aldebe, Vivianna Torun Bülow-Hübe, COMPANY, Ingrid Dessau, Sverre Fehn, Rasmus Fenhann, Kaj Franck, Josef Frank, Glimpt, Saara Hopea, Karen Ihle & Jens Eliasen, Fujiwo Ishimoto, Maija Isola, Arne Jacobsen, Ville Kokkonen & Harri Koskinen, Samu-Jussi Koski, Henrik Kubel, Yrjö Kukkapuro, Anne Mette Larsen, Lisa Larson, Bruno Mathsson, Antti & Vuokko Nurmesniemi, Margrethe Odgaard, Masayoshi Oya, Raili & Reima Pietilä, Grete Prytz Kittelsen, Åsa Pärson, Tina Ratzer, Anders Herwald Ruhwald, Ingegerd Råman, Kustaa Saksi, Kyllikki Salmenhaara, Ramona Salo Myrseth, Johanna Seelemann & Björn Steinar, Brynjar Sigurðarson, Ilmari Tapiovaara, Mats Theselius, Jørn Utzon, Hans J. Wegner

Travel as a Tool is produced as a joint effort by Vandalorum, Design Museum Helsinki and Tønder Art Museum.

Exhibition curators: Anna Vihma, Elna Svenle, Anne Blond

Thanks to: Clara Lachmanns Stiftelse, Estrid Ericsons Stiftelse, Letterstedtska Föreningen, Vandalorum Partners, Värnamo Municipality, Region Jönköping County and Swedish Arts Council.

^{Photo: Anders Bergön}