A Midsummer Night's Dream

Welcome to be enchanted in
A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Some 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, the ice is so clear that in some places you have to touch it to see that it’s actually there. It’s like no other ice that you’ve ever seen before. At least that we’ve ever seen before. When we were asked to design a suite for Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, we didn’t hesitate for a second. We also knew that it would be all about the ice.

Our idea? Well, what better way to show the true character of the ice than to encapsulate the most delicate and beautiful Swedish midsummer flowers in an arctic environment? For us Swedes, midsummer, and especially midsummer’s night, is filled with myth and legend. The Scandinavian nature that surrounds us flowers and ice plays a huge part in our cultural upbringing and has a bearing on who we are as Nordic people as Scandinavians. Hopefully, our vision with the suite ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ will invite you also to be a part of us.

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Artists

BERNADOTTE & KYLBERG was founded in 2012 by Carl Philip Bernadotte and Oscar Kylberg and has since created designs for leading Swedish and international brands such as Hästens, Georg Jensen,  and many others. Bernadotte & Kylberg's design philosophy is to create unique, sustainable and timeless design with a strong focus on both maximum user benefit and a high degree of design.

The duo sees it as their task to, through new textures, materials and techniques, question how we use and look at an object - and thus create innovative designs that last for generations. Bernadotte & Kylberg have, among other things, been awarded the TableWare International Award of Excellence and the Red Dot Award in the category "High Quality Design" for their collection Aquatic for Stelton.

THE CHANGE OVER TIME

The living material in form of flowers and birch leaf allows the suite to change over time. The initially clear surface of the ice blocks is slowly getting more frost on in and in some parts, we can only glimpse the fresh flowers. The flowers have changed over time, the once clear colors have slowly changed into a new tone. A more neutral tone that conveys the beautiful and fragile. Nature takes its course and what once was, should not be taken for granted. This creates a mystery in the suite and a story about the transience of life.

See the change and difference in the ice and the flowers in the two pictures below. The pictures were taken one year apart, the photos on the left is taken 2021 and those on the right is taken 2022.