Image: Trapholt, Kolding
Trapholt in Kolding, Denmark, will reopen in spring 2027 with ‘Hans J. Wegner – Design med kroppen forrest’, an exhibition devoted to the work and working methods of the Danish furniture designer Hans J. Wegner (1914–2007). The exhibition will run from 1 March 2027 to 13 August 2028, presenting Wegner’s development from journeyman cabinetmaker to one of the world’s best-known furniture designers.
The exhibition will approach Wegner’s furniture through the bodily and tactile creativity that shaped his practice. Rather than treating the objects solely as icons of Danish design, Trapholt says the presentation will examine how the body relates to design and how furniture is experienced in use. Visitors will also be able to use a specially developed design scanner to select the Wegner chairs that suit them best.
Among the works named for inclusion are the ‘Ox Chair’, the ‘Y-stolen’, the ‘Flaglinestolen’ and ‘Jakkens Hvile’, alongside other furniture from Wegner’s extensive production. The exhibition will place particular emphasis on the continuing significance of craftsmanship, linking the designer’s furniture-making with questions about skilled manual work today.
That focus is reflected in the exhibition’s development process. Trapholt has worked with vocational schools in Denmark’s Region of Southern Denmark and Central Denmark Region, including Skive College, EUC Syd in Haderslev and Hansenberg in Kolding. Students and young craftspeople from EUC Syd and Hansenberg are building a reconstruction of Wegner’s brick house, which will be installed in the museum’s special-exhibition gallery.
The house is intended as part of the exhibition’s physical environment, allowing visitors to enter a recreation of the setting associated with Wegner while encountering furniture that is presented through movement, touch and bodily proportion. Trapholt describes the exhibition as a celebration of craftsmanship as well as a reassessment of familiar designs. The museum has credited Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen’s Foundation, the Augustinus Foundation, the New Carlsberg Foundation and the William Demant Foundation with financial support for its realisation.
Trapholt is currently closed while it undergoes a major renovation and expansion. The museum’s reopening is scheduled for spring 2027, when ‘Hans J. Wegner – Design med kroppen forrest’ will become one of its opening exhibitions. The institution has also announced a separate preview connected with Kolding Design Days: on 1 October, curator Kristian Roland is scheduled to give a behind-the-scenes introduction to the exhibition and the reconstructed house. The preview is listed from 5 to 6pm at Trapholt, Æblehaven 23, Kolding, with admission priced at 95 Danish kroner and a stated 10 percent discount for members of Klub Trapholt.
