Ciao! Welcome back to the IKEA Festival show!
Today it's rock 'n' roll time here in Milano.
These are today's topics:
IKEA and Swedish House Mafia release a new product,
Fashion brand H&M has an exciting thing going on together with IKEA.
and rock 'n' roll punk band Viagra Boys will perform.
Well, I bet it's not just me who can never miss a chance
to see a good punk or rock 'n' roll band whenever I'm at a festival.
Ever since I was 16 years old I've been going to festivals every summer back in Sweden
and I'm super happy to be here at this festival combining
two of the favourite things in my life: Design and music.
Let's have a look into a new collaboration that's focusing on this.
The talk of the town, something I've been looking forward to so much
is this new, exciting collaboration with no other than Swedish House Mafia and IKEA.
They're combining design and music into our homes.
I had the honour of meeting the designers. Let's have a look.
We got three products here today that we're revealing:
This amazing record player, this really nice, comfy chair for listening to music
and we've got this great desk to help music producers make great music.
What was their part of the collaboration?
What's nice about Swedish House Mafia is that everything they do
is a strong statement, but it's also minimal and that's the same for IKEA.
We want to be basic and simple but super effective and they're the same way.
In the beginning, when we were exploring what this project was going to be
we really explored around that and also the joy of playing music
including the lifestyle around it: Making music and playing music
and how you want to have that centre stage in your home.
For this chair, when I'm producing music I actually...
I need somewhere to sit and completely relax and get into the vibe.
Listen to the whole track from beginning to end.
Then I need something really comfortable so I could sit in a chair like this
or I can just lay flat on the floor.
What an exciting new collaboration! You can read all about it at IKEA.com.
Meanwhile, I'm still here in Milan. The festival is at full blast.
At the same time, we have another festival going on back in Sweden, in Helsingborg.
It's a four-week-long festival called H22.
Now I'm going to check in with one of my colleagues over there.
- Hej Sara! - Welcome to Helsingborg, Sweden!
My name is Sara, creative leader at IKEA.
I'm on the balcony of Magasin 405 - a 4500 square metre warehouse
packed with the exhibition, food and shops.
We're part of the IKEA Festival but from Sweden and the City Expo of Helsingborg.
Tonight we'll have the amazing artist Sarah Klang playing for us.
She'll come with her nice, soft, velvety voice and capture us
and we're very much looking forward to that!
Thank you, Sara! I hope you have a great time back in Sweden.
I can't wait to see you when I get back home.
But I'm still here in Milan and we're going to talk about Atelier100,
an exciting new collaboration with young creatives, IKEA and H&M.
This week has been all about inspiration, collaborations, creativity
and now we're going to talk about a collaboration between H&M and IKEA
that's called Atelier100.
Here on the stage with me I have Zoe, Edoardo, Camilla, and Marcus.
We're going to talk a little bit more about this whole project and your parts in it,
but let's just start so everyone gets it, what's Atelier100?
It's actually an incubator program that we do between H&M and IKEA
and we've introduced this new brand, Atelier100.
We're setting it up in London. It should be in the parameter of like 100km
where everything is produced, where we find all of the creatives
and where we're going to sell this stuff, so that's what it is.
And we've done a marketplace which is like a workspace at the same time
where we gather these people.
So Camilla, for H&M, why would you go into this type of collaboration?
There are actually several reasons.
At its core, what we found out after our first discussions
is that we're working in two big global, curious companies,
so we really want to explore how to find new creative talents for both companies
and also how we can tap into the different communities.
It's also super interesting to do something for the customer for the first time.
We've done collaborations behind-the-scenes before, helping each other in the industry,
but this is the first time we do something that the customer can take part in.
It will be produced, created and sold in London.
It's a very exciting collaboration!
Zoe, you're one of the creatives that's part of this whole thing - Atelier100.
Tell us a little bit about you and your art and crafts.
I'm a knitwear designer.
I design mainly women's wear, and I knit everything by hand.
I source Italian deadstock yarn.
I take yarn waste and make it into something beautiful.
It was incredibly exciting being chosen for this opportunity
and to have two incredible industry professionals recognise
that my craft and my practice is exciting to them.
To have that validation was really amazing!
And Edoardo, you're on Palazzo Monti.
- Can you tell us a little bit about that? - Sure!
It's a residency project that's been running since 2017
and has evolved over the years into a full-on cultural centre.
We have a private museum where we showcase our collection
and an exhibition space where the product of the residencies are shown.
People with ideas and means have a social responsibility to create spaces,
not only virtual but physical
where connections and creative processes can happen.
I was super happy to join the conversation
and see where Atelier100 will take us in the future.
And Zoe, being part of Atelier100, being a creative,
what are your expectations being a part of this?
I think it's just so exciting that I can take something that is already existing
and make it commercially viable.
To have mentors that can mentor me
and push me in the right direction.
Having that guidance is just integral, to be honest.
Right, we're looking forward to seeing more of all of your work
and seeing more of Atelier100.
Can you tell us something about the future of the whole programme?
It's going to be loads of learnings for us because this is still a pilot,
but as we always do within both IKEA and H&M
we foresee that it's going to be a success, so you start dreaming
about where in the world the next one is going to be and what we'll learn there.
I don't think it's going to be the same Atelier100 in all the places.
It has to be formed by the place.
It's about how that place comes to Atelier100 rather than Atelier100 coming to a place.
Right! Alright guys, thank you so much for sharing a bit with us!
Coming up in the IKEA Festival show, rock band Viagra Boys will perform live,
but first, we're going to talk about sound and art.
This week we've been talking about home and all the dimensions of home.
Now we're going to talk about sound and more particularly:
What does art sound like?
Well. I'm very curious to hear! I'm here with Frans, my new guest on the roof.
Great to be here! Thank you for the introduction.
IKEA is launching these new front panels for their SYMFONISK speaker
in the shape of three really well-known art pieces,
probably three of the most famous paintings in the world.
I work as a composer and a sound artist.
We like questions about how, why and where we're listening to music
and why we're listening to music, that sort of thing.
I was asked by IKEA to interpret those three paintings.
That ended up in three soundtracks or more like sound installations.
You can even call them sound sculptures.
So you looked at one of the paintings. Which one? Give us one name.
- I started with Mona Lisa. - We need to listen to this. I'm curious!
Everything that you made and you made it into a piece of art. Let's hear how it sounds.
When we're talking about creating a home how important is sound?
It's interesting, listening to those ants that we've just heard.
If you don't know that you're listening to ants they just sound like clicking noises.
As soon as someone tells you what you're listening to your whole mind opens up
and this is interesting.
Sound is like a language that you start to learn from a really early age
and then you create your own library inside of you which is really fascinating to me.
This is also easy to connect to how we work with interior design and exterior design.
Who doesn't like bird sound indoors? All the malls these days.
And now we're getting this beautiful sound of Italy right here.
Thank you so much for explaining this a bit more
and getting us inspired to use more sound inside of our houses.
Yesterday, we were talking about the biggest failure in the history
of IKEA product development. We were talking about the piano.
Some of my friends back at the IKEA museum happened to find
one of these old pianos from the 60s
and we have the super pianist Teodor Volger trying out this piano. Let's listen.
All week we've been talking about our IKEA home visits
and when it comes to the museum my friend P-O has a story
about the very first of what later became a million home visits.
He has a story of the very first home visit back in the 60s.
Ciao! Hejsan! Hello! I'm P-O from IKEA Museum.
Today it's a throwback to the time when both Ingvar and IKEA were young.
Back to 1960.
It was always known, that our founder liked Italy.
Even on vacation, he did what he always did.
He asked questions and he took notice of what people told him.
Because, as he wrote: "We need to take our place and participate in people's life.
"And maybe most important. You have to take part with your heart."
So what did he find then, at his first home visits in Italy?
Surprises!
He seems to have been quite shocked.
And believed that many Italians had spartan homes.
But the big idea he got was beautiful furniture should not cost a fortune.
In 1969, Ingvar conducted a more thorough study about the lives of the many.
This time in Vienna.
This gave so much input about peoples' needs that it helped IKEA to develop its concept.
Then came Gothenburg, and over 300 home visits.
A deeper study that actually made IKEA the choice for the many people.
Now, home visits are a vital part of the IKEA design process.
Now we are on our way to our first million home visits.
It might be nice to know, that it was here that it actually started.
Home visits numero uno.
If you want to know more about IKEA history - Benvenuti al IKEAmuseum.com.
Thank you so much P-O you're such a legend!
Talking about homes, let's do another home visit.
This time we're travelling to the Netherlands.
My name is Marc. Two years ago I bought an empty van
and converted it into a tiny house on wheels together with my girlfriend.
Welcome. Come on in.
It's a short tour.
This is the bedroom. The kitchen.
Here we have the dining room.
And below is our garage.
Of course, it's just a treat that you can pick your own backyard every day.
Guys, this is so cool!
It's not always very romantic.
I think you only really start to realize
how nice things are when they're taken away for a while.
We're used to having things in abundance at home. Things like water for example.
Something I definitely miss is the shower.
I really wouldn't have missed this for anything.
Really happy with the choices I made.
And how nice actually that something like showering
can make a day successful for me.
Tomorrow I will be back to you with more highlights
from this amazing IKEA Festival here in Milano.
Now we can't wait anymore it's rock 'n' roll time:
Swedish legends Viagra Boys.