The textile artist Lisa Juntunen Roos receives the 2023 Young Applied Artists award. In her works, she explores materiality, technique, narrative, and the strong role played by tradition. The SEK 100,000 scholarship is awarded by the Bengt Julin Fund, which is administered by the Friends of
Nationalmuseum, and will be presented at a ceremony at Nationalmuseum on 16 November.
Lisa Juntunen Roos, born 1988 in Västerås, has an impressive artistic CV including studies at Capellagården, Handarbetets Vänners skola and Konstfack. She has participated in several exhibitions and received commissions for works such as Ne Jotka Tulivat Me Jotka Jäimme / Dom Som Kom Vi Som Blev [‘They Who Came We Who Stayed’] for the Oxen parking garage in Västerås (2022).
Speaking about her work, Lisa Juntunen Roos said: “My art has multiple pillars. I have one foot in the world of traditional textile crafts, where I explore making, the role of tradition and its consequences for makers, and national identity. My other foot is in the artistic research and design sphere, where the first pillar is shaped into a means of artistic expression. My art is also a constant exploration of my own bicultural identity, where my works become a narrative in chapter form.
In my work I use a technique that is common in Finland, drawing on the tradition of crafting with birch bark – a material that started to give way to plastic in the 1960s. This phenomenon – making use of something that would be thrown away in Sweden is something that I see as typical of the Finnish mindset. Behaviour that came about as a result of war and rationing and found expression in handicrafts. Pride in managing to make use of what you have.
“It’s important to me that the material I work with is independent, by which I mean that the material and the technique possess a certain something, and I can use that something as a springboard to create my own narrative. From an applied art perspective, I look at the people that constitute society. Making has always been close to people, and every story has a material.”
Citation by the jury
Shredded coffee packaging and a braiding technique borrowed from traditional birch bark crafts have become Lisa Juntunen Roos’ trademark. With her recycled materials and her emphasis on craftsmanship, and with motifs centred on migration and family relationships, her works are firmly anchored in the big social issues of our time. Meanwhile, the most eloquent aspect of her work is the expressive, personal narrative.
2023 jury members
Elsebeth Welander-Berggren (chair), Rolf Julin (Bengt Julin Fund), Micael Ernstell (Nationalmuseum), Love Jönsson (Rian Designmuseum) and Kerstin Wickman (design historian and writer).
The Young Applied Artists award was founded by Bengt Julin in 2001. Its purpose is to recognize the work of emerging applied artists under the age of 35 working primarily in Sweden. The award of SEK 100,000 is given out biennially by the board of the Bengt Julin Fund, on the advice of an appointed jury. Past recipients include Rasmus Nossbring (2021), Alexander Tallén (2019), Märta Mattsson (2016), Ida-Lovisa Rudolfsson (2014), Simon Klenell (2012), Karl Magnus Nilsson (2010), Helena Hörstedt (2008) and Christian-Pontus Andersson (2006).
The scholarship will be presented at a ceremony at Nationalmuseum on 16 November.
