Besides the theatre, of course there are several studios where interesting,
innovative and sometimes also odd works can be born. To finish my articles about Konstepidemin, I talked to Bibbi Forsman, one the artists who is renting a studio at Konsepidemin.

You are preparing for the forthcoming Stockholm Furniture Fair
(Möbelmässan). What you are working on and
also what kind of projects have you been involved lately?

-I will be showcased as one of ten Swedish craft artists by KHVC, a
Swedish craft organisation. For the fair I’m making a kind of
furniture for public spaces, mosaic covered concrete shapes. I use a
mix of handmade ceramic shapes and mosaic work and hope to attract
commissioners for future work.Recently, I’ve done two very different

commissions using this method. Four wall panels in entrances to apartment

buildings in the former wharf area in Göteborg. I used broken China for the mosaic,
porcelain from the East India Company ship Götheborg that sank just
outside the harbour in the 1700s. That gave me goose bumps and a
feeling of connection to craft persons over the centuries.

Another piece is a wall in a hospital entrance in Lidköping, where I
could work more free from a given theme. I wanted to create something
that was colourful and yet could be looked at for a long period of
time by maybe worried and sad people in a waiting area.

It is at the same time art work, design and craft in the different
stages of the process, that’s what I like most with my job! A place
like Konstepidemin surely erases the otherwise common borderlines
between the fields.

Why do you personally think that Swedish design has made a mark on
the international scene?

-We have our reputation from former Swedish Grace-days. I think it’s
because of the design education that asks for a high level of
artistic skills from the students. But I think we are quite invisible
for the time being, there are so many designers and craft artists
here in Sweden, totally unknown for an international audience. We
have kept to ourselves for a long time but I think this is changing
with a younger generation of established designers and craft artists.

 Where in Sweden – or abroad – can we see your work?

-Over the years I’ve followed several tracks in the work with my
ceramics, from utility ware for kitchen tables to
commissions in different public and private spaces, in Göteborg and
other Swedish cities. One theme always gives ideas for the other.
Nowadays my ceramic is more sculptural and more suited to spacious and
often public, surroundings. And there are some experimental pieces in
the ceramic collection at the international ceramic center in
Kecskemet, from a wonderful stay at a symposium the summer of 1997.
Most of my work can be seen on my web page www.bibbiforsman.se