KIOSK HELLO » Sweden

notes from the north: Majbål

Ming — Sat, 29 May 2010 11:20:56 +0000

On the first of May, Swedes celebrate Valborg — the coming of spring — by starting bright and early with champagne for breakfast. As the festivities commence, things just get sillier, but at dusk the Majbål brings a romantic, and rather dramatic, close to the day’s folly.
ours consisted of last year’s Christmas trees which emitted the rich scent of burning pine. A good way to start the season.

Bergman I love you

Alisa — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:36:11 +0000

An image from the Bergman home on Fårö

Contrary to it being passé or not I have always loved Ingmar Bergman. I read his autobiography, Marco and I met on the island of Fårö where he had his home, when I first moved to Sweden I talked the Swedish Institute into loaning me copies of their English subtitled Bergman films they sent to their consulates abroad, as I felt watching Bergman was the only way to understand the inner workings of the Swedes (some Swedes would hate me for saying this but oh well). How many times can one watch “Wild Strawberries or Smiles of a Summer Night ? Forever I say. The man died in 2007 and now there is soon to be a public auction of many of his possessions. According to his will it was his wish, according to me the Swedish Government should be stepping in, but they are sadly conservative now and too busy privatizing the social systems, you know in Sweden, “businessmen” admire the American Way. HERE you can see details about the auction. Some of the objects are just incredible. If you want to visit Stockholm catching the auction might be a good idea.

Birdhouse sighting

Ming — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:23:23 +0000

Look what we found in an antique store in Stockholm! None other than our very own birdhouse — a tried and true design that has housed birds in Sweden for generations!

Kryptoniter

Ming — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:18:19 +0000

Imagine all the flavors you could possibly want in candy in one! Kryptoniter is SOUR cherry, SWEET after the first layer, and SALTY licorice in the black stripe. The packaging takes the cake! The down side is you have to travel all the way to Sweden to get it. These bad boys can be purchased at any old convenience store. Well… there’s some incentive for you.

heading up north!

Ming — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:42:31 +0000

so long!

soho sand witch

Marco — Sat, 02 May 2009 19:39:18 +0000

So today kind of started so-so when walking over to the store with a coffee in hand I got bumped by a large Scandinavian tourist who were swirling around in Washington Square Park, getting half my very expensive coffee spilled all over my very inexpensive blazer. To console myself I went to Grandaisy Bakery to pick up something yummy to up my mood. And what do they have there if not a Scandinavian “lyxrågmacka” — they call it Il Scandinavio or so. It’s sliced eggs, sliced cucumber, capers and red onion on seven grain dark bread. I meant to take a picture, but after passing the sandwich too close to my mouth it disappeared, leaving but the wrapping as evidence of it’s existence. Why am I telling you? Two things: One is of course they are damned good sandwiches. Get them when you are in soho next time. Come by us too for that matter! Secondly, I have been daydreaming of opening a Swedish sandwicheria for years! I even got myself sent a whole load of Swedish crispbread to do a smörgås-mini-exhibition one of these days in the store. Seeing Grandaisy beat me to it of course make me want to hurry up with my exhibition.

Mini #11– Sara Isaksson From

Marco — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:48:15 +0000

You are walking through the forest, imagine that as you normally live in a city, and suddenly you are hit on the head by a large object. It hurts. You want to start crying but you realize that’s the way it goes in the wild, no pain no gain, it’s survival of the fittest. The weird thing is you look down and realize what hit you on the head is not from nature, it is not stone or any type of flora. What hit you looks like a tree growth but it’s made of ceramic. Where are you? Is this forest inhabited by little creatures making pottery all day long? We are happy to host Sara Isaksson From, the Swedish ceramicist from the forest called Scandinavia to KIOSK March 26 — April 11th. On Saturday the 28th Sara will be at us from 2 — 6pm to have a chat with you. We hope you will brave the Soho crowds and stop by for a beer or just to look at the work and say HI.

This show was possible with the help of - Thanks!

Vacation

Marco — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:15:20 +0000

We left for Sweden to decorate a tree with our recently acquired ornaments from Dullsville and to make and eat traditional foods. It’s nice here… Christmas eve was celebrated yesterday — here in Sweden, all the action is on the eve before — presents, Santa (sw:Jultomten), smörgåsbord (called julbord this time of year). Christmas day is more of a day for church visits, or if you are not too into that which we are not, reading and digesting the prior day’s fatfest. Anyway, we are away until the 6:th of January.

Mini #7: UGLYCUTE: Experiments in Dakota Burl

Marco — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:05:28 +0000

Mini #7 will be UGLYCUTE with “Experiments in Dakota Burl” — November 18th — 26th. There is a opening party from 7pm to 10pm on Tuesday the 18th.

Experiments in Dakota Burl? When we sat down and thought about making our own products we first thought about who we would like to work with, then we thought about what we feel the world needs and then we called the Swedish design office UGLYCUTE. We met them in 2003 and have been wanting to work with them ever since. Can you imagine bringing together the humanistic touch with something so contemporary it blows you mind? It’s about opening the door and daring to go through it to begin again rather than peeking in or touching the handle and going home to comfort. Sometimes you have to go against your own beliefs, what is familiar, to find something new. Not because NEW is necessarily a positive but because to continue to look at form and to
re-examine and to create is utterly essential. Humanistic + Intrinsic + Futuristic = UGLYCUTE = LAMP + A STOOL + A TABLE. Each object requires the user to participate and be involved in the creative process of making an object. Each object is made with environmental materials.

These are the first products we are producing under the KIOSK name. They are things we feel are needed in a world loaded with objects. We hope to produce 3 — 4 items a year.

From UGLYCUTE:

“Popular is what most consumers like. They like what they already know and find comfort in — the old. Consumerism becomes synonymous with conformism. Popular rules — the open market is closing its gates to the different. Uglycute reaches into the unrecognizable and unfamiliar in order to treat design as a way to visualize and communicate something new and different. The new is vital since this system is in such a bad need for change to cope with the problems our way of life is confronting. Uglycute believes that new ideas need different visuals to make people understand this important change”

Many thanks to the INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS STUDIO PROGRAM IN SWEDEN:

Without them you would not get to see this here in New York!

A Distraction about Smoked Shrimp

Alisa — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:57:41 +0000

One of my favorite things in the world is smoked shrimp, have you eaten this? Sounds a bit odd no? We were in Sweden recently for a wedding and I was able to pick some up. Although I eat less and less things from the sea I had to make an allowance and go for it. I wonder where you can find smoked shrimp in this country? Odd I have not seen them in the states. I have the smoker from Finland and I wonder what the process is, could I do it myself when visiting my father at the Cape? The thing is they are smokey and a bit oily, also, Swedish (Scandinavian) shrimp is really another thing than what we have here. Often from the North Sea, they are not at all chewy and good ones have quite a bit of a salty taste (the smoked ones loose the salt taste and have a deep smokey flavor), often delivered in the shell, the roe can be with the shrimp, I found this a bit odd at first. Smoked shrimp are full of flavor, you get the shrimp taste and a smokey smell and taste at the same moment. By smokey of course I mean the smokey like smoked fish, not a cigarette. We most often eat them with a saffron aioli and some Knäkebröd and butter, the best way is to eat them in the park or at home; they really know how to prepare seafood in Sweden. I have yet to see smoked shrimp outside of Scandinavia. Perhaps you can find them on the West Coast of the US? If anyone knows, please drop a note. Otherwise be sure to try some if you are in Scandinavia. Some days I think it would be great to have a smoke house, although it must be hard to get the smell out of your hair. But picture a smoke house by the sea and jumping in the cold water at the end of the day. I’d definitely have smoked tofu and other vegetarian options as well as fish and shrimp…Yum, gotta go make breakfast…