The Mindcraft Project
The Mindcraft Project 2020 unfolds a curated selection of artistic, research-driven and experimental design projects by ten of Denmark’s most notable designers and artists. This year, we transformed the exhibition into a digital experience due to the Covid-19. Welcome to the digital exhibition.
The Mindcraft Project is a platform for explorative and experimental design from Denmark. Through communication and exhibitions, the ongoing project addresses issues of future relevance in a meeting between design, craftsmanship, art, research and technology. The Mindcraft Project celebrates human creativity and design that can bring profound ideas to life and tackle relevant issues. Through exhibitions at leading international design events, pop-up shows, case studies, interviews and articles, The Mindcraft Project aims to raise awareness of what design can do and how it affects our lives. Artistic and experimental design practices serve as fundamental research in society, inspiring to new ways of thinking, making, consuming and living. Our mission is to elevate these design practices and promote their work, and to push the boundaries for design’s potential to create new perspectives on future innovation.
Past exhibitions and organization
The Mindcraft Project (formerly MINDCRAFT) was initiated in 2008 with the inaugural exhibition during Milan Design Week 2008. The annually recurring exhibition project has received considerable critical acclaim throughout the years for its curated thematic content and varying participants. From 2008 to 2013, the exhibitions were organized by Danish Crafts. From 2014 to 2018, the exhibitions were organized by Danish Arts Foundation. In 2019, The Mindcraft Project was handed over to Copenhagen Design Agency by The Danish Arts Foundation.
Wang & Söderström
The Mindcraft Project will be designed by the Copenhagen-based studio Wang & Söderström. The studio is known for its ongoing exploration of connections between the digital and the physical. Wang & Söderström is comprised of spatial and furniture designer Anny Wang and architect Tim Söderström. The duo has worked internationally with a wide range of leading design-driven brands as well as renowned cultural institutions. Copenhagen Design Agency has selected Wang & Söderström to be in charge of exhibition design and visuals for The Mindcraft Project’s exhibition for Milan Design Week in 2020. “The design elements take inspiration from the new ‘era’ of The Mindcraft Project. By working with abstract shapes that influence each other, intersect and grow in different ways, we want to symbolize the action of making an impact. One side is how we as designers or consumers create traces, a collective human imprint on Earth. Another side is how we as designers can create meaningful impacts and catalyze change”, says Anny Wang and Tim Söderström.
Materiality and Technology
Bridging physical and digital realms is a major theme in Wang & Söderström’s work, and they are persistently challenging the boundaries between these realms. The studio strives to create mind tickling and unexpected experiences through materiality and technology. Wang & Söderström discard pre-existing conventions regarding the digital, and the duo puts emphasis on tactility to give the digital a more human-relatable quality and create meaningful connections between digital and spatial experiences.
Wang & Söderström. Anny Wang (b. 1990), designer. Graduated from HDK, Academy of Design and Crafts, 2014.
Tim Söderström (b. 1988), architect. Graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Architecture (KADK), 2015.
Digital Exhibition
Milan Design Week will not take place this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, The Mindcraft Project 2020 will be presented in a new digital format.The Digital Exhibition will launch 16 June 2020. The exhibition will highlight artistic, research-driven and experimental works by some of the most notable contemporary designers and artists from Denmark.
The represented artists are:
Ane Lykke
Cathrine Raben Davidsen
FOS
Jonas Edvard
Kasper Kjeldgaard
Krøyer Sætter Lassen
Maria Bruun
Mathias Bengtsson
Norm Architects
Tanja Kirst
More to be revealed so stay in touch!