This year, we are celebrating the 80th anniversary of Alvar Aalto’s classic design, ‘stool no. 60’. The climax of the anniversary year will be the Stool Makes History exhibition produced by the Alvar Aalto Museum. The exhibition will be open to the public and will be on show in the Gallery at the Alvar Aalto Museum in Jyväskylä from 16 May–8 September 2013.

The exhibition will include a review of the history of the 3-legged stool, based on pictures and objects, and will take a look at the design work Aalto did in connection with the stool. The exhibition will also throw some light on the stool’s complex manufacturing process and present some of the building designs that were on the architect’s drawing board in 1933, when the stool was designed.

So far, over one million of the stools have been made and the Korhonen furniture factory has acted as the maker of the stools from the very beginning. Over the years, a number of copies of this popular stool have been made and a few of these will be on show in conjunction with the expedition.

As Alvar Aalto Museum Curator Kaarina Mikonranta says, “If an object is popular, beautiful, or sought after, people begin to imitate and copy it. This has happened with stool no. 60. The genuine article can always be differentiated from the copies, however, often on the basis of the manufacturing technique used.”

The HUNT THE STOOL! campaign, in which everyone can take part, brings added interest to the anniversary exhibition. The campaign, which will run to the end of 2013, challenges the public, both in Finland and abroad, to share their own photographs and stories about the classic stool through the social media. The idea of the campaign is to collect people’s personal experiences of the stool.

Detailed instructions for the HUNT THE STOOL! campaign can be found at: www.alvaraalto.fi/stool_60.htm

A Stool Makes History
16.5.–8.9.2013
Alvar Aalto Museum Gallery

Alvar Aallon katu 7
40600 Jyväskylä
Open Tue-Sun 11–18

The Opening of the Exhibition will be held on 15.5.2013 from 18.00 onwards. Representatives of the press will be welcome at the Opening!

Further information

Exhibition:
Educational Curator Mari Murtoniemi mari.murtoniemi(a)alvaraalto.fi,
tel. +358 400 254 708

View the exhibition catalogue A_Stool_Makes_History (PDF)

HUNT THE STOOL! campaign:
Producer Tomi Summanen tomi.summanen(a)alvaraalto.fi,
tel. +358 44 555 7337

Press photos
Photos are password protected. Please request one from Mari Murtoniemi, Tomi Summanen or Pia Poskiparta at firstname.surname@alvaraalto.fi