June’s edition of Bubble London is the biggest and most exciting yet, with new signings Timberland, Elle, DKNY and Steiff making first-time appearances at the show. These new signings further boost an already impressive list of brands that is growing by the day and features well-known and yet-to-be-discovered names from across Europe, America and Canada, Oceania and Asia, including Calvin Klein, Mini A Ture, Love From Australia, No Added Sugar, Petit Bateau and French Connection.

Södra has developed a chair made of pulp in collaboration with design and architect company Claesson Koivisto Rune. The chair has its world premiere at the furniture fair in Milan.

Parupu is a chair for children. A unique material makes the chair durable and waterproof, as well as fully compostable. To suit its young target group, it is also colourful, stackable and made for fun and games. Parupu lasts roughly the length of a childhood and can then be recycled.

The chair is made from the material DuraPulp, a result of several years’ research and development. The objective was to develop a material with a paper like feel, but with durability normally associated with materials like steel, wood or hard plastic.

Design and architect firm Claesson Koivisto Rune has, in conjunction with Södra and research company STFI-Packforsk, experimented and tested the suitability of the material for use in a tough and practical chair for children.

The group exhibition entitled “Small Adults” examines the scope of the term childhood at the onset of the 21st century, and its transformation into an period of premature adolescence, which cuts childhood down to a negligibly short phase that culminates in the creation of a small adult with a productive role in society.

Flanking the perception of modern childhood as a protected, bubble-like period, are trends that crack through the sealed-off world of children and expose them to the contents of the adult world at ultra-high frequencies. The communications media lay the groundwork and dispatch agents of culture that become role models for children, who naturally compare themselves with these dubious models and form their self awareness as well as their social and sexual identity accordingly.

The enlightened Western world clucks its collective tongue at the phenomenon of child exploitation for labor or prostitution purposes in Asian, African and South American countries, but the West itself provides legitimacy for the economic exploitation of children in competitive frameworks such as the entertainment, beauty and sports industries. For the sake of succeeding in these realms, children regiment their bodies and put them to use for roles once reserved for developed, mature bodies. The culture of plenty is what steeps the world of childhood in the concepts of consumption, branding and image, which are internalized and perceived by youngsters as irrefutable facts of life.

The period of childhood is often portrayed as a transitional time of innocence and lack of awareness, yet traumas originating in the childhood years can irreversibly shape the identity of adolescents and impact the rest of their entire lives. “Small Adults” presents disturbing images of contemporary childhood – awareness of developing sexuality, overt and latent violence, internal and interpersonal conflict, and digital morbidity, all of which point toward an era of small adults – children reluctantly mature before their time.

Exhibiting artists:
Reli Avrahami, Bilha Aharoni, David Amuyal, Susan Anderson, Tierney Gearon, Neta Harari, Ruud van Empel, Rakefet Viner-Omer, Michal Chelbin, Achim Lippoth, Tracey Moffatt , Gustavo Sagorsky, Asaf Silner, Jon Claytor, Gideon Rubin.