THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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An eye for aesthetics

An eye for aesthetics

PP Mobler's chief Soren Holst Pedersen talks about his company's relationship with iconic designer Hans J Wegner and how he sees new Danish talent

SOME OF DANISH designer Hans J Wegner’s most iconic chairs have found their way to Bangkok with a selection of seats – including the late designer’s Teddy Bear Chair – now available at Chanintr Living’s Craft Store.
The first chair by Wegner to be produced at PP Mobler, the Teddy Bear chair marked the beginning of a collaboration with this family-owed joinery workshop that has involved generations of craftsmen and countless hours of hard work.
The company, which was established in 1953 and recently celebrated Wegner’s centenary with an exhibition of his designs, is now in the hands of the founder’s son Soren Holst Pedersen, who was recently in Bangkok and happy to talk with The Nation.
Pederson assumed the helm of his father’s company 30 odd years ago and inherited a craft, a business and most importantly, a legacy.
“A passion for wood is in my blood,” says Pederson. “My dad didn’t force me into working with the company. But something happened inside of me after growing up in this environment and being surrounded by people who craft and create. You become exposed to the process of creation and you see people who are glad to participate in that process. It’s such a powerful environment that you become naturally interested.
“I consider myself a craftsman. I love wood and the process of creation – moulding, cutting and joining. I seek pleasure in art of building. Functionality and minimalism have always been important in our designs: that’s typical of Danish tradition. I really appreciate terseness because as a craftsman it’s very nice to make something where you can see the craftsmanship in a clear way. But our designs are not grounded in any one aesthetic concept. Designs have always being changed and adapted because design is about possibilities. Wegner understood this and his designs were about functionality but they did not ignore possibilities. He saw details from a Chinese chair and absorbed new perspectives on design. Design is about possibilities, like the possibilities of wood,” he says.
“I really like wood and I particularly like the way that we can allow its organic quality to be expressed in form, despite its solidity. I will always remember the first time I saw an entire tree being cut through a sawmill. It was a really poetic moment; I could see the colour being split as the tree was sawn, and the grains in the wood were parted. We have to respect it if we are in this trade and we have to always preserve our wood. Denmark did not always have abundant wood. In 1800 there was almost no wood left when the king mandated the construction of a Royal Navy so a new law was passed that required new trees to be planted where old ones had been felled. From that programme came the ‘Navy Tree’ and we now commonly use this term to refer to the species of trees that have been repopulated. PP Mobler wood is sourced from authentic Copenhagen hardwood and we take great care to select and treat it. Sadly, you do not see this often in the trade anymore. Large international companies who enter the trade are only concerned about profit,” he continues.
Wegner was considered among the greatest furniture designers, producing more than 1,000 models in his lifetime. Between 1960 and 1968, many of Wegner’s prototypes were developed at PP Mobler before going into production.
 “Wegner was always a harsh colleague. When I was a young boy – still an apprentice – Wegner had made a drawing for a cabinet that he wanted made. I was responsible for sourcing the materials. I could not, for the life of me, find the right locker required for his piece. I could not find it in the catalogue so I substituted a different kind of locker instead. When Wegner saw my error, which was very blatant in the light of day, he dragged me by the ear and gave me the most frightening scolding I have ever endured. The encounter made me wary of his temper but also grounded in me a reverence for this great figure and his unswerving eye for detail,” Pedersen recalls with a smile.
He too has an eye – for new designers – the ones he believes will soon be in the limelight. 
 “One is Thomas Elkin who he has engineered some interesting designs. The other is Soren Ulrik Petersen with whom we have collaborated with for roughly 30 years and whose fruitful career has contributed greatly to our innovations. Petersen is one of the few designers with a firm understanding of what we are about and what we are doing. His works show a scrupulous commitment to craftsmanship and finish but also reflect a great deal of innovative thinking.” 
He also believes that designers share an overarching vision, part of which consists in perfecting attention to craftsmanship. “There is a lot of expressive or artistic “freedom” within the company; designers are at 
 liberty to conceive forms that elicit sensation or forms that help to embroider a particular atmosphere. Especially with new technical equipment, like our computer- programmed woodcutter that is able to produce some very splendid undulating curves, artists have greater expressive potential. Sometimes new designers will ask me ‘what do you need’ and I say ‘you don’t need anything but what you want to do?’
“You don’t develop new things if you consciously create borders. But in many ways our designers create their own boundaries because they influence each other and because a collective ethos or a shared atmosphere is created between artists. Finished products become similar in design. Therefore a kind of criteria becomes naturally set. It is also how or what a consumer dictates which set agendas. We get sent products back with requests for certain elaborations or subtractions and we learn to accommodate a constantly changing aesthetic.” 
 
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