{"id":10023546,"date":"2026-03-05T11:44:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T10:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/innenkreis\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T10:02:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T09:02:27","slug":"art-innenkreis-new-design-gallery-in-copenhagen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/art-innenkreis-new-design-gallery-in-copenhagen\/","title":{"rendered":"Innenkreis"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 19 March 2026, Innenkreis<\/a> opens in Copenhagen<\/a> as a new gallery that deliberately places contemporary functional works in dialogue with historical positions of the decorative arts created before 1940. The inaugural exhibition, \u00bbRaiments,\u00ab presents the work of Danish designer L\u00e6rke Ryom<\/a>, whose practice is defined by a material-driven, craft-based approach to furniture. With this concept, founder Zeynep Rekkali Jensen connects contemporary design positions with historical references, establishing a curatorial framework that understands functional objects as part of an ongoing cultural dialogue. In conversation with Chapter, she discusses the idea behind the gallery, her curatorial perspective, and broader questions of how design and craft<\/a> can be communicated today.<\/p>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 What led you to the curatorial idea of placing contemporary functional works in dialogue specifically with pre-1940 decorative arts?<\/p>\n

Zeynep Rekkali Jensen<\/em>\u00a0 For me, integrating historical works felt more honest. In real life, our homes are never purely contemporary or purely historical. So curating a strictly contemporary environment felt slightly artificial to me, almost like pretending objects exist outside the flow of time.
\nThe choice of pre-1940 decorative arts was deliberate. These objects reflect a moment before industrial standardization dominated design and before ornament was vilified by modernism. Decorative elements, especially figurative ones, were still natural and coveted. I love that. I want to see Goddess Artemis with her crescent crown on objects around me. For me, objects that allow us to feel something, not only to use them efficiently, are vital.<\/p>\n

\"Installation
\u00a9 Robert Damisch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Additionally, the world already has exceptional mid-century and late 20th-century design specialists, so I did not feel drawn to that canon. Instead, my aim was to contribute more poetry.
\nWhen I choose the historical pieces, I prioritize those that clarify and reinforce the exhibition’s conceptual theme, connect the narrative, or introduce a timeless, visionary design perspective.
\nFor example, the armchair by Anton Pospischil was exhibited at the MAK in Vienna<\/a> in 1902. I like to remember that our work now is not entirely new. Designers in the past also worked at the edge of their time, with skill, vision, and patience. It is humbling and inspiring.<\/p>\n

\"Intallation
Styling | Photo: Mille Collin & Line Klein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 Would you say the placement of contemporary works alongside historical pieces such as Josef Hoffmann\u2019s nesting tables or a Gio Ponti lamp shapes the way viewers engage with the objects\u2014and encourages the slower looking that craft-based work requires? And more broadly, how do you approach cultural mediation in a time of shrinking attention spans and a culture increasingly experienced through screens?<\/p>\n

Zeynep Rekkali Jensen<\/em>\u00a0 I don\u2019t think of it as fighting against shrinking attention spans, but rather creating the conditions for attention to return. The gallery space is intentionally calm, and I\u2019m very invested in the meeting point between craft and conceptual thinking.
\nCraft-based objects retain a quality that cannot be digitized: their weight, texture, and presence. The conceptual narrative of the exhibition, the craft processes, and the dialogue with historical pieces all mediate the work for the viewer.
\nThe historical objects serve as anchors in the room, establishing continuity amid a culture that moves rapidly from one image or trend to the next. Their presence, shaped by time, shifts the atmosphere and slows the experience, emphasizing a connection between past and present.<\/p>\n

\"New
\u00a9 Robert Damisch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"new
Styling | Photo: Mille Collin & Line Klein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 Why did you choose L\u00e6rke Ryom\u2019s exhibition Raiments as the opening show for Innenkreis? What made her practice the right starting point for the gallery?<\/p>\n

Zeynep Rekkali Jensen<\/em>\u00a0 Textiles can appear gentle at first glance, but the decisions behind them are extremely technical. That tension, softness that is actually structural, feels very much like the spirit of Innenkreis.
\nWhat I admire about L\u00e6rke is that she is both an impeccable designer and a deeply committed craftsperson. When you sit in her pieces, you immediately feel how carefully they are designed. They are incredibly comfortable, which places them within that Scandinavian tradition of thoughtful, human-centered design.
\nShe pushes that tradition further. In this exhibition, every piece is hand-stitched. This creates a completely different rhythm of making.<\/p>\n

\"Intallation
Styling | Photo: Mille Collin & Line Klein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 Ryom speaks of \u00bbdressing\u00ab furniture rather than upholstering it, allowing materials to drape naturally rather than forcing them into rigid forms. Would you say this approach reflects a more co-creative relationship between material, craft, and function in contemporary design culture?<\/p>\n

Zeynep Rekkali Jensen\u00a0<\/em> Yes, absolutely. L\u00e6rke references philosopher Michel Serres\u2019s notion of hospitality as mutual transformation. To host is to accept change. In her work, the furniture frame becomes a host. It offers structure and support while letting go of control. What emerges through that negotiation is an object formed through care rather than command, where softness is an ethical refusal of control. This refusal challenges the hierarchies inherited from functionalist modernism, in which structure was privileged as truth and softness was pushed aside as decoration. [Ed.]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 19 March 2026, Innenkreis opens in Copenhagen as a new gallery that deliberately places contemporary functional works in dialogue with historical positions of the decorative arts created before 1940. The inaugural exhibition, \u00bbRaiments,\u00ab presents the work of Danish designer L\u00e6rke Ryom, whose practice is defined by a material-driven, craft-based approach to furniture. With this concept, founder Zeynep Rekkali Jensen connects contemporary design positions with historical references, establishing a curatorial framework that understands functional objects as part of an ongoing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10023523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[534,336,348],"tags":[358],"class_list":["post-10023546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-articles","category-latest","tag-kunst-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10023546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10023546"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10023546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10023547,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10023546\/revisions\/10023547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10023523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10023546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10023546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10023546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}