Inside/Outside - furniture exhibition by Jakob Berg

Experience industrial designer Jakob Berg’s indoor and outdoor furniture staged with light and patterns by textile designer Dorte Østergaard Jakobsen. The exhibition ”Inside/Outside” shows at the Danish Design Centre from 13 January – 18 March 2007.

The exhibition presents different types of furniture produced worldwide: Dining chairs, deck chairs, outdoor chairs and rest chairs. Step into the design world of Jakob Berg and get to know his work process, sketches and models.

Jakob Berg’s introduction to the exhibition:
”The title 'Inside/Outside' refers to the fact that I work with both indoor and outdoor furniture and with manufacturers abroad. I make designs for companies in a number of countries, including Latvia, Portugal, Sweden, Estonia, Vietnam, Egypt and Bolivia. The latter through a Danida project with sustainable furniture design. For a number of years I have worked with design in third-world countries: In Egypt and Bolivia with furniture in wood and in Vietnam with furniture in laminated form-bent bamboo as an alternative to tropical hardwood.

With these projects I hope to highlight the new role that Danish furniture design might play on the global design scene. We may help to achieve sustainable production and fair trade for third-world countries, while also securing new markets and impulses for Danish designers. The golden age of Danish design was based on wooden furniture and the belief that design should be able to be bought and used by everyone. Now, these designs have become classics, available only to high-end buyers, because their production is so labour-intensive.

The production of wooden furniture is not particularly high-tech, so developing nations are capable of producing amazing furniture if we contribute design knowledge. This collaboration is benefitting both partners – This enables us to democratise the use of design."

Industrial Designer Jakob Berg graduated from the School of Architecture in Copenhagen in 1987. Berg has created furniture designs for a range of companies in Denmark and abroad, including Trip Trap Furniture A/S, SC-Møbler, Schou Andersen Møbler (all in Denmark) and furniture factories in Vietnam, Portugal, Bolivia, Latvia, Egypt and Sweden. Berg has won a number of design awards, including the Scandinavian Furniture Award 1991, CSMD's award in 1995 and the Danish magazine Bo Bedre's Special Award 1996; he has also received a working grant from The Danish Arts Foundation.

Textile Designer Dorte Østergaard Jakobsen graduated from the Danish School of Art and Design in 1984 and has since had a large design production, with an emphasis on textile design. In particular, Østergaard Jakobsen is known for her decoration projects in Denmark and abroad, and she has held a number of exhibitions in Danish museums, mostly in the form of installations with printed fabrics and furniture, designed in collaboration with Jakob Berg.