Nordic Design in Translation

‘Scandinavian Design’ as a myth, a brand and a shorthand for a range of design ideas has proved an enduring and adaptable construct. Its export around the world has ensured that it has touched and transformed design cultures from Europe to Australia. At the same time, the Nordic design it draws on has been shaped and reshaped by influences from beyond the Nordic countries and by reflection on its own global success. This collection of essays considers Nordic design from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day within transnational dynamics of cultural interaction, circulations and cross-border flows that highlight exchange and reciprocity. Engaging with a range of Nordic and Nordic-inspired material objects, techniques, practices and concepts, the essays assess both the impact they have had on new cultural contexts and the ways they themselves have been fashioned and refashioned in response to foreign influences.

Edited by Charlotte Ashby and Shona Kallestrup, Nordic Design in Translation: the Circulation of Objects, Ideas and Approaches includes Shona’s chapter ‘Nordic-Romanian Connections: A Case Study of the Transnational Dimensions of “National” Art’. Dr Kallestrup’s research, and the open-access publication of this chapter and the volume’s Introduction, were supported by the Horizon 2020 project Art Historiographies in Central and Eastern Europe: An Inquiry from the Perspective of Entangled Histories (2018–21), grant number 802700. Illustrations in the book were generously funded by the Design History Society’s Research Publication Grant.