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Margriet Vollenberg, the founder of Milan’s popular Ventura Projects, will curate Helsinki Design Week’s exhibition at the newly renovated Olympic Stadium in September 2020.

Helsinki Design Week has joined forces with Margriet Vollenberg to bring the most interesting Northern European talent to the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. Vollenberg is best known as the founder of Organisation in Design and Ventura Projects – the exhibitions of Ventura Projects at Milan’s Salone del Mobile attract up to 150,000 visitors. Helsinki Design Week will be benefitting from Vollenberg’s extensive experience in the design industry and her international expertise.

Margriet Vollenberg. Photo credits: Jan-Willem Kaldenbach

Building on last year’s exhibition at the Erottaja 2 palace, Helsinki Design Week has secured another prominent venue for showcasing the best of design from Northern European countries. The festival will open the doors of the recently renovated 1952 Olympic Stadium, offering visitors a unique chance to see the Helsinki landmark from a completely new perspective. This unusual environment for the design festival will also reach new audiences because it coincides with the Stadium’s opening weeks.

Colony x Ventura Projects. Photo credits: Jason Wyche

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! The Olympic Stadium provides the selected artists and designers with a blank canvas, the city is celebrating the re-opening and the exhibition will change the visitor’s perception of the building. I’m looking forward to curating an exhibition which connects to the values of sport, such as fun, entertainment and bringing people together,” says Vollenberg.

World-class refurbishment: Designed by Yrjö Lindegren and Toivo Jäntti in 1938, the iconic Helsinki Olympic Stadium is an exemplar of renowned Finnish functionalist architecture. Under renovation since 2016, the revamped Stadium will provide circa 20,000 sq m of new underground sports facilities and an indoor running track. The master planning and architectural design for the world-class refurbishment and extension project has been provided by Architects K2S and NRT, with specialists from Wessel de Jonge Architecten and White Arkitekter.

“After the success of last year’s main exhibition at a neo-Renaissance palace we wanted to raise the bar even higher by securing the Olympic Stadium as our main venue for 2020. Our aim is to increase the impact of design and to gain increasing interest from a wider and more international audience. Margriet was the perfect choice for helping us achieve this,” says Kari Korkman, Founder and Director of Helsinki Design Week.

The theme for Helsinki Design Week 2020 is Commitment Matters. The theme raises questions regarding the meaning and value of design. Continuing on from last year’s theme, Learning Climate, Helsinki Design Week reflects on the commitment to sustainability. The festival will continue taking steps towards producing more environmentally-friendly events.

Helsinki Design Week 2020 Main exhibition at the Olympic Stadium
10–13 September 2020

Location
Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Paavo Nurmen tie 1
00250 Helsinki, Finland