JENNY GRETTVE
 
 

what I believe

The future of historic ideas

As a flirt to the renaissance humanists I try to study a wider perspective of fields in order to create a program suited for a wise future. I wish to inspire and seek great collaborations for discovering, interpreting and delivering ideas to change our perception of life.

“I love to doubt as well as know.”

- Dante Alighieri

 
 
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the framework

Philosophical Explorations

My work moves a mixture of visual fields in the intersection of space and meaning with the scientific idea that all is connected.

Our current momentum requires us to imagine and experience new futures. With a broad background and many years within art, architecture, urban planning and systems design, I work as a strategic and philosophical designer with a focus on shared spaces, economic systems, behaviour patterns, chaos theories and societal change.



horiZon manifesto no2

Belongings & Ownership

There are some imperative moments in time when it is clear that humans, more than usual, need to redefine themselves, expand their horizons and develop new perspectives. As we enter 2023 we hit one of those junctures. Human life seems lost and somewhat painful with no clear common belief in mind. 

These manifestos are tranquil and humble responses to common hardships and global ordeal. Short in form, they aim to spread micro declarations easy to embrace. By expanding public ethos, we can curiously consider new ways of living, breathing and being. Ideas and knowledge, radical thoughts or peaceful perspectives, they can all facilitate dynamic and constantly changing viewpoints to redefine current human existence in the context we live in and live by.

Read & download a free version here. Buy a locally printed coy at andthekiosk.


Book

REopening of a city

We live in cities with inhumane voids. Spaces that used to inhabit vivid life now stand in gloomy silence. Empty retail stores, dark corners and offices that were left to their fate–they all demand a change in how we use and live in urban areas.

So what is needed for creating a more desirable city? The co-created book REopening of a city doesn’t have the answers, and it is not going to give you a detailed recipe of correct urban planning. It is rather an insert to stimulate and encourage further dialogue when we consider and design the future. 33 inspiring and creative humans have given their own personal thoughts on the future of our cities and this book is the collection of their voices. You will also find 33 brief ideas of what empty spaces could be turned into for a generous and inviting city to thrive. REopening of a city is a fluid and heartening compilation of what a city could provide and what extraordinary shapes it might take.

REopening of a city is available HERE.

jenny grettve studio

writing

how to live happily on mars

Wild and reflectful writing expeditions to joyfully dive into unknown worlds. It is a place where I try to make sense of the world through the eyes of an exploring mind. I delve into every day slowness, life in all its apparitions, fiction, poetry, dreams and how to live happily.

jenny grettve studio

soft space transformation

Textile architecture

Everything is in constant motion - life is flux. Textile architecture explores temporariness and flow in large scale installations but also studies facades and the skin of a building when values of all planetary objects are the same.

jenny grettve studio

new book

Oh, what a way to die!

Oh, what a way to die! is a brief exploration of modern manhood. Deteriorated ideas of masculinity – where self interest and profit are more desirable than generous care – are deeply linked to the severe and ongoing planetary crisis. 

Through a heuristic dialogue between the two investment bankers Sten and Cordell, we are taken on a journey from banking worlds and constant acquisition, to mothers, sustainability and the true meaning of life.

Art

An Economic Model

When forecasting solutions to our climate crises, or even to our more general human crisis with enormous inequalities, it is not illogical to dive into the intangible world of economics. Economics sits at the heart of all that we do, at the heart of society and at the heart of human activity on the planet. Then, why do we seem so afraid to expose, dissect and anatomize economy in all forms imaginable? 

Our current economy is a space and a commodity for just a few. It is an arrangement most of us believe we need to conform to, not discuss or reshape. The work ‘An Economic Model’ demonstrates through sculptural form one glimpse of a brief relationship between humans, governance and monetary systems.

An Economic Model - Photo by Daniel Engvall.


ART

Abody Abode

Just like architecture is spatial, there are spaces inside oneself. We construct them, move through them and let them protect us. 
Abody Abode is a poignant collection of fragmentary stories and architectural spaces that are both memories of emotions and made-up moments. The outcome is a modest but also rebellious anthology that tells a story of modern womanhood.

Get your copy at andthekiosk.


writing

Human melancholy

We talk about transitioning. We talk about transitioning societies for a sustainable future. We talk about the emergency and absolute need for a just transition. But what exactly is it that we believe should transition?

There is a certain melancholic state that is embedded in the concept of being human. We are born with the infinite dilemma of pondering about who we are. Through times we’ve wondered, we’ve created religions and art. We’ve discussed and discovered. This melancholy comes with pain and could very likely be a cornerstone in the anger, the stress and in the evil human darkness through time. To avoid having to deal with the fact of not knowing, many have occupied themselves with whatever was at their hands. Over the last century that has taken enormous leaps while capitalism and consumerism has scaled, most likely the two main reasons for our current crisis in the first place. The world of consumerism has become a great personal hiding place, far away from the frightening unknowns we carry within.

More texts on sustainable transitions can be found at How to Live Happily on Mars.

Kids Playing on the Streets of New York City jenny grettve studio

LECTURE

Architectural Days

Over the last year our lives have been dramatically changed. A majority of my beliefs do not feel as clear or reasonable as before. Crisis and fear has a great impact on how we feel and how we think. With that being said I wish for this short lecture to be seen as a very personal input or viewpoint of what I believe today. With this global world at such speed, tomorrow is still unclear.


Art

‘Please don’t touch the model’

The new piece ‘Please don’t touch the model’ is a continuation of the Economic Model. The Economic Model is a snapshot of our global economic system from one person’s perspective during a millisecond in a certain point of time. Inspired by orreries (mechanical models of our solar system), the model wants to show how we humans compart, and constantly want to make sense of, complexity and uncertainty.

Video collaboratively made with Oscar Cravalli and Ian Bennett.


Design AGENCY

When! When!

When!When! is a new feminist design agency that creates system demonstrators to test ideas generated by global researchers working with the climate crisis and sustainable life.

There is a vast amount of innovation and knowledge already on the table, yet somehow for many of us, it feels complicated to move from written and spoken words to real life testing. We take radical innovation by global think tanks to local contexts through visionary implementation of system demonstrators. We believe it’s time for action.

Welcome to When! When!


Art

Profit Chronogram

The view of progress over time can look different from where you’re standing and what you need to see. The Profit Chronogram is a study of profit, products and design through a brief moment in time. It follows facts but similarly explores possibilities for the future.


about art, economy and being human

Economic Spaces

For most humans, to live is equal to taking part in an economic system, a system heavily shaped by the idea of accumulating capital. Since early childhood most are trained to believe that a good amount of money corresponds to a safe life, a happy life. In some sense that is true, but it has symmetrically created a snowball effect where there is no clear idea on how much capital one single person actually needs to be, and feel, safe and happy. This perception of having lost the concept of a reasonable and legitimate personal capital seems to be growing among us, while we find ourselves simultaneously fighting against our very own existence. The last few decades have crystallised the drastic changes we, us humans, have put on Earth over the last five hundred years of colonialism and capitalism. We have extracted, produced and used more than our planet could tolerate, and we now stand with a wound so large that we don’t know where to start. But there is a missing discussion that we seem remarkably afraid to acknowledge . A discussion around why we felt we needed so much to begin with. The unclear and enormous need for accumulation that seeds our money economy.

Economic Spaces is a project by Jenny Grettve for Dark Matter Labs and an invitation to deeply discuss economy from a humanistic point of view through art installations.

Economic Spaces exhibition by Dark Matter Labs. Photo Daniel Engvall.


Study of entanglement

Bodies & Space

The project Bodies & Space was created as prints for textiles in 2013. Through morphing photographies of bodies, movements and space, the images created stories of new views. Views that were twisted, entangled and simply beautiful.


philosophical art object

Carry your time

“Carry your time” is a backpack that was made for a collection of philosophical objects in 2013. The vintage old wooden clock carried memories and history of its own. The leather straps came from the Swedish military service and had been used out in field. When the two objects were gathered and worn by a current user in her own life, time was intensively present and continued its intangible path towards nothing.

 

SELECTED WORKS

ANON - PUBLIC MEETING SPACE/ECONOMIC SPACES - ART INSTALLATION/HORIZON MANIFESTOS - ZINES/REopening of a city - book/TEMPORARY SQUARE -VARVSSTADEN-SWEDEN/COMMUNITY BASED LANDSCAPE DESIGN -VEIDEKKE & KJELLANDER SJÖBERG-SWEDEN/TEMPORARY URBAN PARK -IKANO BOSTAD-SWEDEN/SIGNS & WAYFINDING PROGRAM -VARVSSTADEN-SWEDEN/ACTIVATION PROJECT BANK -VÄSTRA HAMNEN-SWEDEN/ACTIVATION PROJECTS -KVARTERET CAROLI-SWEDEN/URBAN RUINS -LECTURES/2030 SITI -PEDAGOGICAL SCHOOL MATERIAL ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY/POP-UP BOULEBAR RESTAURANT-DENMARK/SPACE IDENTITY WORK - RODES INDUSTRIAL AREA-SPAIN/SUSTAINABLE SIGNS -MALMÖ FESTIVAL-SWEDEN

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Contact

info@jennygrettve.com

T: +46 709 92 82 73

Djäknegatan 1

211 35 Malmö

Sweden