Mats Theselius Krasnyj Ugol

Mats Theselius exhibits Russian everyday objects as pure design.

When Mats Theselius exhibits at Färgfabriken, he doesn’t show his own design, but his collection of Russian, or rather Soviet, everyday objects: toys, technology, lamps, books – everything mixed. The objects are the result of the often peculiar design produced behind the Iron curtain, design that is now disappearing. A flight engineer could be assigned to work with toy design during a few months in a centralized production line. Is this Mats Theselius idea of good design? How do the results differ between the things produced in a centralized production line like the Soviet one, and a competition based western model?

The exhibition is shown as a parallel to Interpol – a big exhibition based on a global network from Stockholm to Moscow. Together, this focus on the Russian makes for a good starting point for a discussion about design and setting, east and west.