It is on the occasion of the last edition of “3daysofdesign,” the great Danish celebration of design, that the German furniture designer and craftsman Carsten in der Elst presented his very first exhibition, “Soft Works,” in the Tableau gallery in the heart of the Scandinavian capital. As its name suggests, this installation is an ode to softness. To bring it to life, the young Cologne-based creative artist spent more than two months researching soft materials. Research that he came to put into practice in the world of interior design through a show presented in Copenhagen. The result? A primer of materials, both natural and synthetic, temporary and permanent, and both recycled and intact. A jumble that questions our relationship to comfort, to the constancy of materials, but also to contact. In the design of his pieces, the traditional stuffing process has been bypassed in favor of softness. Only those that honor the malleable have been preserved. Among the most astonishing realizations, we must retain the bed of rest “Aluskin” out of aluminum and foam, just like this white chauffeuse, this coffee table out of wood fiber and latex, but also the very incongruous “Accession Chair” upholstered with tubes of latex. Some, which suggest the ephemeral, are full of poetry, like these chairs and stools in cork, whose contours crumble, as well as this wax lamp which seems to collapse.
Lisa Agostini