Actually, the Cologne furniture fair IMM was supposed to start on January 18, 2021, and with it the annual PASSAGEN, the cultural program accompanying the Cologne fair, was to start again. Together with Artek and Vitra, we wanted to show an extensive exhibition about the work of the Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto in the Markanto Depot this year and present our new Markanto Edition at the same time. But due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown, the furniture fair and the PASSAGEN were cancelled. We hope that we can make up for the exhibition next year!
The new Markanto Edition consists of two designs by Alvar Aalto from the early 1930s. With the armchair 42, the Finnish architect designed the first cantilever chair ever made of plywood, the classic is still produced today by Artek with a black or white seat. Stool 60, on the other hand, is Alvar Aalto's most successful furniture; he himself also considered the design with L-leg technology to be his most important furniture design. At the same time, the stool 60 is a very nice example of sustainability: even today, numerous stools from the 1930s and 40s are still in use around the world. The long life was also a criterion for Artek just being awarded the German Sustainability Award 2021.
In total, Artek produced three cantilever chairs 42 and 25 stools 60 for Markanto in the Karelian Gold version, a beautiful photo from the production using the historical tools in the Artek manufactory in Turku, Finland can be found here. The product name is derived from the Karelian burl birch used, which is characterized by a wild and fiery structure. This precious wood grows only in the far north and is named after the landscape Karelia, which is located in the border area of Russia and Finland. The use of Karelian curly birch is quite rare, the precious precious wood was used exemplarily for the famous Fabergé eggs at the Russian Tsar's court or for the refinement of hunting knives. Alvar Aalto himself used this particular birch for some of his furniture such as the cantilever chair 42 in the 1930s.
We appreciate your interest in this unique edition. Many thanks also to Artek and Vitra for the realization of the Karelian Gold Edition.
Markanto. The design pioneers on the web.
Originally Markanto was founded in 1999 as a brokerage exchange for second-hand design objects, shortly afterwards our curated online store for design classics was launched. We quickly became a portal on the topic of design classics. Markanto was the first German online trading partner for manufacturers such as Knoll International, Vitra or Zanotta. At the same time, we presented numerous design collections for the first time on the German web, such as the ceramics of Jonathan Adler and Aldo Londi, the designs of Piero Fornasetti or the furniture designs of Pierre Chapo, Ilmari Tapiovaara and Fabricius & Kastholm. Our spectrum is rounded off by our own collections such as our re-edition of the Knoll International carpet collection from the 1970s as well as limited editions.
Markanto
