Turns out we’re not the only ones who have noticed Scandinavia’s re-emergence as a design powerhouse. In 2012, at the behest of the Taiwanese government, the National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute invited five Swedish designers — Gabriella Gustafson and Mattias Ståhlbom of TAF, Matti Klenell, Stina Löfgren, and Carina Seth Andersson — to visit their country in order to work with craftsmen to explore the world of lacquer techniques. From Taiwan’s point of view, the project was meant to boost interest in their native lacquer craft and to investigate the effects of combining lacquer work with Scandinavian design. But it was also a very savvy business decision: “Many producers in Taiwan are curious about the performance of IKEA, Muuto, and Hay ━ the entire Scandinavian success story,” says Klenell. “A lot of questions have been asked about that kind of thing: ‘How can we learn about design, how can we start up businesses?'”

The impact of the collaboration on Taiwanese design culture is still to be seen, but the physical results will be on view starting next Tuesday and until February 8 at Stockholm’s Östasiatiska Museet, or the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities. The five designers created 35 pieces in total, from a lacquered, inky black mirror by TAF to a series of decorative combs by Stina Löfgren. The designers were free to use whatever materials they wished, so long as lacquer was one of them, and over the course of several trips to Taiwan, the designers traveled the country by minibus, meeting potters and woodworkers, and visiting porcelain factories, joinery workshops and paper mills. There the project took on a whole new level — it was not only about the meeting of different design processes but also about the merging of two philosophically different design cultures. “Things we take for granted ━ stylish, ugly, modern, old ━ lost their meaning in the encounter with the Taiwanese craftspeople,” says Löfgren in the accompanying exhibition catalog. “Objects designed in a ‘Scandinavian style’ that is self-evident to Swedes were not infrequently viewed with astonishment and wonderment. ‘Why do you want your comb to have a straight line? A curved line is far more beautiful,’ the craftspeople said to me. There were discussions about taste and beauty. What is beautiful? What is lacquer suitable for and unsuitable for?” There was also the practical difficulty of communicating in two different languages. Löfgren asked the craftspeople, using her basic design, to apply whatever surface finishes they liked, as long as they were abstract. “When I got the pictures back, the combs were covered in decorative butterflies.”

In order to have the project be a true collaboration, the designers learned to relinquish control a bit. “Letting go was hairy but instructive,” says Klenell. “It was in many ways a surreal project, focusing more on new knowledge and inspiration and a slow process rather than manufacturing, mass production, and selling. In other words, as far away from the expression ‘Made In Taiwan’ as you can possibly get.”