The Bed by Elmgreen& Dragset X Georg Jensen

Georg jensen participated in the Wallpaper* Handmade exhibition “With Love” during Milan Design Week 2019. Georg Jensen partnered with Elmgreen Dragset and create a unique and life pausing object.

The Bed is both a sculptural object and a functional device that encourages us to put away our phones, as a shared ritual act. It is handmade in silver, designed by the artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset and commissioned by Georg Jensen.

“We wanted to make something beautiful that could be displayed in the home, but that could also positively impact how people spend their time,” says Michael Elmgreen and continues, “since it seems like the biggest threat to our love lives and relationships today might be our use of cell phones and the increased time we spend on social media, we created The Bed as a gesture towards mediating this problem.”

“It’s almost like an Easter egg. It’s an object that has a promise in it. There’s excitement to it, when you open it,” adds Ingar Dragset and elaborates, “we wanted the Bed to have its own promise, like an expectation of the future. You put your two phones in the Bed, close it and the signal is gone. You go through the ritual together as a couple.”

The shape of an egg has an inherent aesthetic balance. Conceptually this links to the balance people are currently seeking to find in hectic, always-connected lives. Eggs are enclosed structures that facilitate incubation and birth, and therefore, they can also symbolize new possibilities.

We are increasingly interrupted by the streams of the digital world, but once in a while it would make perfect sense to go offline and enjoy the people and the world right in front of you.