Trapholt

Dorte and I continued to be cultural and went one day to visit Trapholt, a museum of contemporary art and design that is located in Kolding. It is one of the largest modern art museums in Denmark outside of Copenhagen. We didn't bring anyone else, it was an afternoon just for us, and it was l-o-v-e-l-y!

 

We started by visiting the temporary exhibition by Erik A. Frandsen - The Giotto Method. This artist lived through a 2020 in a self-imposed isolation due to Covid, and ended up being extremely productive during this period. The title of this exhibition The Giotto Method refers to the experiments with perspective conducted by the Italian painter Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337); and how Frandsen's paintings are constructed around the same principles of perspective that Giotto had.

Interesting, thought-provoking and somehow sad paintings... I really felt some of them, too close to home.

Then we took on another temporary exhibition, about Verner Panton, called Colouring a New World. And boy did he colour his world, Panton applied a spectacular use of colour, material and shape in a very unique way!
I LOVED this exhibition!

Verner Panton is one of the most prominent names of Danish design history, and influential since the 1950s and still today. He had a long career, where furniture was at the heart of his creative output. Check out this super cool sofa/chair-module called the Living Tower! You can actually sit on four different levels.

Nothing "light and fresh" here (as in many Scandinavian homes), it's all bright, brash, exotic, vibrant and sensuous at the same time!

The Phantom Chair, one of his more known creations. Can be used as a chair, a bench or even a side-table.

One part of this exhibition consisted of three rooms, each with their own sound, like f.e waves or animal noises. Verner Panton had a desire to develop a theory of feeling good, by living with all our senses, which we could test out here in each room.

There was also a separate part in the museum called Light and Colour, with eight rooms also created by Verner Panton, for Trapholt specifically. Each room had its own colour scheme which really made you aware of the effect each colour had on the mood and feeling.

The museum really enjoys a fabulous setting with lovely views of the Kolding fjord, so of course we had to pause our visit and enjoy a that together with a quick fika, some cake and lemonade.

Finally we ventured down into the basement, thanks to this big spiral set of stairs, inspired by the Guggenheim Museum. Down here we saw the Among the Trees installation, also created during the Covid-winter.

This was a really cool work, created as a project by a total of 740 individuals each creating a specially selected leaf, then being quilted by the textile artist Tina Ratzer and collected into this artifical forest. Each leaf tells each persons story and relationship with their chosen tree.

What a great visit! My heart was singing and my face was smiling all the way through!