The J39 Portraits Fie Paarup & Kasper Bjørke
Fie Paarup, trained as a lighting designer from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2018. Started Studio Fie Paarup in 2017 and has since been creating textile works and curtains from excess material and residual stock.
Kasper Bjørke, music producer and DJ, since 1999 working on his own project Kasper Børke Quartet in his studio while also being a manager for other artists.
Together they have created an atmosphere at home, bringing peace and joy. All furniture is found preferably second-hand, and patina is appreciated as it tells stories about specific events and their family life putting their marks on the objects.
“ ...I love how the chairs catch the soft light coming in from our north-west facing window. ”
Fie Paarup
Fie: “The style of our home can be described as simple with touches of colour. We like a warm and calm interior where the tactile is paramount and let the senses explore light, form and surface. We deliberately do not have many things and objects standing that take the attention and presence from the art, the light, and the furniture.
The J39 chairs we bought second-hand five years ago are way older. We wanted to change out our variegated vintage Eames chairs in different colours. The J39 was, in a way, the diametrical opposite of the hard steel and the coloured shells, with its warm glow in the wood and the tactile wicker.
We chose these chairs because they are classic, beautiful, and comfortable to sit in, and I love how they catch the soft light coming in from our north-west facing window. It has an absolutely fantastic interaction with light and shadow.
The Spanish chair, which we also have in our home, was bought vintage as well. It contains several funny stories and visible impressions that testify to its use. Among other things, it has a very special imprint in the leather after our 3-year-old son sat in it after a bath.”
A Nordic humility
Kasper: “We probably, subconsciously, try to create an atmosphere that gives us both peace and joy daily as we both work at home. There is a combined classic timelessness and, at the same time, a "Nordic humility" and calm about the J39, which I like very much, and which fits well as a counterpoint to our art collection, which consists of contemporary artists from all over the world, where some of the works are pretty "noisy".
For me, the chair represents both excellent craftsmanship and something very safe and classic. I find it incredibly charming when the chair has a patina combined with other objects and works of art, which pull it in a different direction. It works perfectly around our large dining table, both for games and dinners - and is so versatile that it works everywhere in the apartment if you need to use them for something else.
When we rarely choose furniture for our home, it is done with the heart, and then it should preferably be found recycled or vintage as we want to have as low a footprint on our planet as possible. We rarely change anything for our home since, over the last 12 years, we have found the things we feel are right for us to live with; we don't follow fast trends that much. Then there may be things that need to be replaced due to wear and tear, but we would instead try to repair or reuse.”
Explore more J39 Portraits
J39, commonly known as “the people’s chair”, has won the hearts of design enthusiasts worldwide for more than seven decades, and this year it has been 75 years since Børge Mogensen drew his immortal classic.
We mark the anniversary with a series of portraits visiting Copenhagen creatives having the J39 in their homes or studio to chat about what makes good design, creating a particular atmosphere and choosing furniture with the heart.
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