Artek and design studio Formafantasma welcome visitors to the Kaleidoscope Room at the SONGEUN Art and Cultural Foundation in Seoul, South Korea, to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Alvar Aalto’s iconic Stool 60 with an installation dedicated to the Finnish forest. The immersive space, curated by Formafantasma and supported by Maharam, juxtaposes large-format photographs and videos with the tactile sensations of wood and textiles. Maharam’s contribution of custom materials includes a large-scale digitally printed curtain, developed in close collaboration with Formafantasma, capturing a film still of a Finnish birch forest in reference to the origin of Artek furniture.

Drawn together by a strong mutual interest in Finnish forests, Formafantasma and Artek embarked on a close collaboration in 2020, born out of the Cambio exhibition at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Applying their ongoing research to Artek’s forest-centric manufacturing, Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin of Formafantasma examined the changing conditions of Finnish forests in the light of industrialisation and climate change.

As a result, Artek’s strict selection criteria for wood was reassessed, and a wider, wilder, and more responsible use of wood is being introduced in September 2023. The new wood selection – called wild birch – includes natural features such as wood knots, insect trails and dark stains, and celebrates the quality of imperfection. Introduced on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Stool 60, Stool 60 Villi (meaning wild in Finnish), made of wild birch, celebrates its Korean premiere at SONGEUN’s Kaleidoscope Room and will be available for sale worldwide from September 2023.

The Kaleidoscope Rooms presents Formafantasma’s ongoing investigation into the extraction, production and distribution of forests and wood products, and a video essay explores the impact of climate change and industrialisation on the complex balance of forests. An abacus made from Artek's wooden components expresses the beauty and diversity of the forest.

"In the context of the climate crisis, design should be seen as a tool for rethinking and analysing industrial production processes, not just the development of new products. Designing with wood is actually designing with the forest: only after recognising what exactly it means to extract resources from the ecosystem can we make wise choices and, if necessary, develop new methods." – Formafantasma

The Kaleidoscope Room by Artek and Formafantasma at the SONGEUN Art and Cultural Foundation is open to the public from 16th August 2023 until 24th February 2024.