MYCKET: Utsikten

Ahead of the museum’s September reopening, ArkDes is excited to announce the public opening of Utsikten: a new space of co-creation led by the art, architecture, and design collective MYCKET. On June 15, a secret garden will inaugurate the start of a process of making and playing at the museum. Accessible all day, every day throughout the summer, Utsikten is a place created not just for young humans, grown-ups, animals, insects, and more—but with them, too.

The mini granite mountain that ArkDes sits on is around 1,700 million years old. When MYCKET studied the geological map of Skeppsholmen, they discovered that the bedrock beneath resembles an ear—not of a human, but more like the ear of a dog, a wolf, or a sleeping troll. Following this discovery, the collective decided to help the troll by constructing an ear that peeks out through the ground. 

During gatherings held throughout the spring, young people from Filosofiska grundskolan in Skarpnäck have spent time with MYCKET to build, nurture, and develop an enchanted garden around this sleeping troll. Together, they have discussed and planned, woven branches, shovelled soil, and applied clay. All materials have been sourced from the museum’s ongoing rebuilding project, or from friends on the island of Skeppsholmen.

So-called “troll aesthetics” are visible in the choice of materials and construction. The giant troll ear and its accompanying earring, shaped like a snake biting its own tail, are constructed from branches trimmed from trees on Skeppsholmen, clay, climbing plants, and more. Seeing the useful in the broken and making treasure out of scrap is what MYCKET term “troll vision”—a driving force in the collective’s design approach, in which available materials shape the form allowing the design to devolve during the working process. Seen through this lens, Utsikten is a place for play and learning but also a portal to another time and possible imminent futures. This timeworn, tiny mountain has stories to tell—if we are willing to listen.

MYCKET was founded in 2012 by artists, designers and architects Mariana Alves Silva, Dr. Katarina Bonnevier, and Thérèse Kristiansson. They work with equality, social sustainability, and the more-than-human within art, design, architecture, and public spaces.

Utsikten at ArkDes
For several years ArkDes has developed methods to elevate the creativity of children and young humans through co-creation in architecture and design. Last year’s success—Bygg din lekplats, a pop-up play module at Utsikten and in Kungsträdgården—is followed this year with a full playground. With it, children’s co-creation becomes a permanent feature on Skeppsholmen. In 2022, Utsikten hosted an installation by Swedish Girls.

ArkDes fully reopens in September
On September 27, 2024, the museum reopens its doors with a new programme of activities, a new entrance, and a renewed visitor experience. After months under renovation ArkDes steps into a new chapter as a public space, an open platform, and a continuously evolving work-in-progress in the heart of Stockholm.