Nordic Table Design 1900-1970. A Silent Female Revolution

One hundred and thirty objects from museums, archives, private collections and iconic companies are on display at the Hendrik Christian Andersen Museum. They show seventy years of female design in Northern Europe and highlight the contribution of designers, craftswomen, architects, artists and entrepreneurs from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden to the transformation of society between the early 20th century and the late 1970s.

Conceived and curated by Fabia Masciello, the exhibition was organised in collaboration with the Nordic Embassies in Rome and with the support of the Council of Ministers’ Culture and Art Programme and Nordisk Kulturfond. Through the theme of the table, the exhibition highlights how the creation of beautiful, functional and accessible everyday objects was not only a matter of aesthetics or functionality but also, and above all, an act of freedom and rebellion, an opportunity to experiment with new social models and redefine domestic and family roles: a gentle, silent but profound revolution.

The exhibition is divided into four sections. They explore the emergence of democratic design in the Nordic countries in the early 20th century, when women began to demand an active role in political and working life, the climate of rebirth and optimism of the 1950s, and the innovations of the 1960s and 1970s, concluding with a tribute to female workers, the often invisible force behind production.