Exposition of the presidents of the Jury, Front Design

Co-founded in Stockholm in the early 2000s, Front occupies a decidedly
unique position in the contemporary design landscape—and even more so
within Scandinavian design. The studio’s creations defy categorization all
the more as they have never been defined by a formal style, but rather by
an intellectual and contextual process of research and experimentation,
always rooted in collaboration. Whatever the final object, the starting point—
broadly open—is both critical and poetic. Often magical, too. Anna Lindgren
and Sofia Lagerkvist place curiosity at the center with as much pleasure as
determination. Every idea, every notion that arises and captures their attention
is thus explored from various angles: historical and scientific. Artistic and
technological. Productive and narrative. Natural and cultural. Functional and
emotional. It is this foundational, almost academic curiosity—an approach that
designers generally tend to abandon once their studies are over , but not Anna
and Sofia—that is at once the matrix and the driving force of their work. Over
the years, they have collaborated with experts, of course, but also with animals,
algorithms, machines—and, more recently, AI. Defying conventions with the
utmost simplicity, they navigate seamlessly between collection design and
industrial production.

If the term “luxury” were to be applied to their work, it would first and foremost
describe that luxury—non-negotiable in their eyes—of creative freedom
grounded in research and the time they devote to it, unstintingly.
For the exhibition at Villa Noailles celebrating their role as jury presidents of
this 20th edition of Design Parade, Anna Lindgren and Sofia Lagerkvist have,
unsurprisingly, chosen to avoid the self-centered clichés of a retrospective,
opting instead to offer an immersion into two projects that serve as the perfect
gateway to their world and creative approach: Seven Stories About Mirrors,
exhibited at Galerie Kreo in 2021, and Geometriæ, developed with Moroso and
just unveiled at Milan’s Fuorisalone.

Front’s works are represented by Galerie Kreo in Paris and Friedman Benda
in New York and are part of the collections of institutions such as the V&A in
London, MoMA in New York, the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, the
Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Design Museum in London, the Denver Art
Museum, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and M+ in Hong Kong.
Their designs are produced by international brands such as Moroso, Vitra,
Moooi, and Kvadrat.

Anne-France Berthelon
Creative strategist, design critic and journalist.
Member of the Design Parade-Product Design jur