This Museum Wants You to Test-Drive Cool Swedish Decor for a Week
Introducing an exhibition you can take on-the-go.
Updated Oct 11, 2018 9:59 AM
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The gift shop might be a great place to find postcards, art books, and tchotchkes to commemorate a particularly inspiring day at the museum, but what if, instead, you could bring a whole exhibition home with you? That’s precisely what the Swedish Design Museum is offering with its new “To Go” show: Four backpacks for rent, filled with Swedish-designed functional art, from throw blankets to headphones.
Visitors can borrow a backpack—each one inspired by a different area of the country—and use the items in it for up to a week. The museum offers an itinerary’s worth of suggestions: Equipped with a fluffy, sustainably made towel, you could take a dip in the ice pool (or visit the sauna) at Hellasgården. With the airbag-inspired helmet, you could cycle around Stockholm (it is an exceptionally bike-friendly city). After a week, the bag and its belongings go to someone else to test out. Think of it as a library of cool products.
More often than not, good design pairs form with function—something you can’t necessarily appreciate by just viewing something on display. We have a feeling this exhibition will inspire plenty of admiration for Swedish-made goods—and likely some purchases, too.
If you don’t have plans to visit the Nordic country in the near future, don’t stress; plenty of the featured pieces are available to buy. And yes, you can totally brag that your new decor is museum-worthy:
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