16 August 2025, 10.00 - 17.00
Vänern Floating Market is a small-scale creative market where design, arts and crafts, and environmental awareness come together by and on the water. The event highlights water as a source of creativity, learning and sustainability – all in a beautiful water environment by Lake Vänern.
You can expect an inspiring market with twelve national and international exhibitors exploring the interaction between humans and water with a focus on sustainability.
At the market, you can enjoy unique crafts, innovative design ideas and participate in creative workshops. You can also listen to talks on sustainability, meet creators who share their work processes, and experience how Lake Vänern is interpreted through dance and movement.
Programme 16 August
Exhibition
10.00 – 17.00
Throughout the day, visitors can enjoy an exhibition on specially designed rafts in the water park. The exhibition presents objects created by the designers and artisans participating in the market.
The rafts have been designed and built by architecture students in a project organised by HDK-Valand Steneby at the University of Gothenburg, Dals Långeds Utvecklingsråd and the Landscape Architecture School at the University of Washington.
Presentations
10.00 – 10.15 Opening of Vänern Floating Market
Ingela Berg och Tiago Prata, Transversal Project
10.45 – 11.00 Luka Jelusic, teacher at HDK-Valand Steneby, University of Gothenburg.
Using floating platforms for markets and neighbourhoods.
11.00 – 11.15 Sandra Stigert, wood artist and craftsperson
A wood-based craft project that explores how cultural heritage and memories are preserved – or lost – when we lose our connection to shared places.
12.15 – 12.30 Maria Kazimierczak, product designer
Design with recycled materials from the sailing boat industry.
12.30 – 12.45 Elna Aurand, textile and social designer
A brief introduction to her work on the role of design in citizen engagement in global water management.
13.45 – 14.00 Michelle Heising, sustainable product and spatial designer
Design with fungal microbes – sustainable solutions for water filtration and floating objects.
14.00 – 14.15 Hajnal Gyeviki, ceramics designer
The designer behind Balaton Borders presents the most pressing ecological threats to Lake Balaton, her method for converting ecological data into 3D objects, and how a dining experience creates a concrete connection to these issues in order to inspire ecological reflection.
Workshops
10.30 – 11.30
Michelle Heising, product and interior designer
Create your own object from mycelium.
Rebeka Csiby-Gindele, product designer
A workshop where participants design and build a small floating object with reflections on sustainability, material awareness and local traditions.
Elna Aurand, textile and social designer
Sensing Vänern – an immersive walk in and around the water where we explore its inaudible sounds and unexpected scents. Waders are available to borrow. Meet at the workshop location. The walk takes about 30-40 minutes.
HDK-Valand Steneby
Design and build your own miniature floating platform.
12.00 – 13.00
Linnéa Ekelöf, multidisciplinary artist
Encase a memory in metal – create your own amulets from beach finds and copper foil.
Viktorija Poposka OAZA, artist with a focus on recycling
Create wearable art with recycled textiles, linocuts and embroidery – feel free to bring your own old pieces of fabric and let your creativity flow.
Marta Pejoska, jewellery designer and silversmith
Open filigree workshop – listen to Marta talk about her work and try your hand at making simple jewellery.
13.30 – 14.30
Jasmina Glavinche, visual artist and craftswoman
Create handmade paper from recycled paper pulp, seaweed and weeds and try out simple decoration techniques – a celebration of transformation, sustainability and the quiet beauty of imperfection.
Mark Somogyi, conservation artist, bookbinder and educator
Create a small sculptural book with marbled paper reminiscent of flowing water.
Elna Aurand, textile and social designer
Sensing Vänern – an immersive walk in and around the water where we explore its inaudible sounds and unexpected scents. Waders are available to borrow. Meet at the workshop location. The walk takes about 30-40 minutes.
HDK-Valand Steneby
Design and build your own miniature floating platform.
15.00 – 16.00
Maria Kazimierczak, product designer
Make your own bag decorations with ceramic beads, strings and ropes.
Marianne Hellman, jewellery artist
A workshop on tanning fish skins – a declaration of love for traditional craftsmanship, sustainability and respect for a life lived.
Elna Aurand, textile and social designer
Sensing Vänern – an immersive walk in and around the water where we explore its inaudible sounds and unexpected scents. Waders are available to borrow. Meet at the workshop location. The walk takes about 30-40 minutes.
HDK-Valand Steneby
Design and build your own miniature floating platform.
Performances
VAERNI - Dance performance and dance walk
Dancers Elin Appell and Signe Willmarsson, who make up DUOVI Scenkonst, draw their inspiration from Lake Vänern as a geographical and historical place, focusing on the movements, colours, shapes and sounds of the water.
Times:
10.15 – 10.30
13.00 – 13.15
16.45 – 17.00
Hanna Sundblad - Songs about the big blue
Singer Hanna Sundblad performs her own songs and those of others to guitar accompaniment, with themes of lakes, water, summer and other bits and pieces under the blue sky.
Times:
11.30 – 12.00
14.30 – 15.00
16.00 – 16.45
- #01 MARTA PEJOSKANorth Macedonia"Every individual should raise their awareness of the environment in which we live and work.”
Marta Pejoska is a contemporary filigree artist from Ohrid, Macedonia. For more than 10 years, her area of interest has been water itself, with a focus on Lake Ohrid. Ohrid is her home and Lake Ohrid is the natural environment in which she grew up. And not only the lake, but also Mount Galichica and Mount Jablanica have shaped
her poetic childhood image of the place where she lives.
The more she learns and educates herself about the importance of this ecosystem, the more her sense of concern is awakened and the question arises as to whether she is contributing to the natural environment or doing the exact opposite with her everyday actions. Her opinion is that each individual should work with their individual consciousness first and foremost for the environment in which they live and work (both city and nature, as a whole) and what happens to the environment, its development and protection, especially today when the human factor plays a key role.
The Lake Fish is the name of the collection she has now developed. The fish, their playfulness underwater, alone or in groups, are the concept behind this collection. The jewellery is mainly made of silver wire and silver plates, with subtle filigree details and natural stones. - #02 ELNA AURANDNetherlands“Everything is connected – and together we can create new ways of understanding and caring for water.”
Elna Aurand is a French-Swedish textile and social designer based in the Netherlands. Elna’s work explores how citizens can participate in decision-making and find agency in water management. Her work is at the intersection of citizen science and sensor technology.
Lakescape in Progress invites local residents and researchers to meet and create alternative futures for a collective reading of water. By recognising the value of local knowledge and community engagement, the project is a collective and somewhat more than scientific mapping of water and its managers. The project uses wool-based water sensors that are immersed in the water for a few days.
The material is biodegradable, locally abundant and colour-sensitive. It absorbs colours, textures and scents and provides a sensory mapping of the lake. - #03 MICHELLE HEISINGSweden“Everything is connected – I want to create designs that strengthen the health of our ecosystems.”
Michelle Heising, sustainable product and spatial designer based in Berlin/Stockholm. She creates designs that improve the health of our ecosystems.
Lakes are heavily affected by human activity, including sewage discharge, littering and industrial pollution. By experimenting with fungi and microbial systems, we have the opportunity to develop completely natural water filters.
Placing functional design objects in public spaces enhances the aesthetics of the environment and the well-being of residents. Her work in the project consists of a microbial filter. New materials meet
traditional craftsmanship in a collection of natural water purifiers that work with fungal microbes, inspired by traditional Swedish craftsmanship in basket weaving and fish trap manufacturing.
She works with new materials such as mycelium foam in combination with the technology of bioremediation of fungal microbes to filter contaminated water and collaborates with craftsmen in the traditional manufacture of baskets and fishing equipment. - #04 REBEKA CSIBY-GINDELEHungary“I want to explore how traditional knowledge and contemporary design can come together in sustainable and playful forms.”
Rebeka Csiby-Gindele is a product designer based in Budapest, originally from Romania. Her practice focuses on furniture design as well as conceptual and narrative design projects.
She grew up in a region where everyday life was deeply intertwined with nature – something that still characterises her design perspective. In her work, she often explores and interprets traditional techniques and uses local materials and knowledge.
She is interested in how craft heritage can inform and enrich contemporary design in a meaningful and sustainable way. Her project Floating Rest is based on a traditional floating object that she reinterprets in a contemporary context, with an ecologically conscious approach to both materials and technology.
Úszka is a handmade wooden floating object designed for recreation in lakes. The concept is inspired by a traditional Romanian handmade pine frame, shaped like an oxok, which was used as a simple floating ring. - #05 HAJNAL GYEVIKIHungary“I want the conversations to continue long after the meal – and for the objects to remind us of our relationship with the lake.”
Hajnal Gyeviki is a ceramic designer and manufacturer from Budapest, Hungary. She works with ceramics, porcelain, glass and concrete, which are created through a mixture of traditional and contemporary techniques.
Her research focuses on the current ecological state of Lake Balaton and its presence in the public consciousness. She has created a set of ceramic tableware based on ecological data collected around the lake. These are visually embedded in ceramics to communicate and spark discussion among locals and other residents around the lakes.
With the Balaton Borders porcelain tableware collection, Hajnal serves curated dinners – gatherings to reflect the ecological state of Lake Balaton's reed beds, not only during the limited time that an event lasts, but also as a product line. During the dinners, water, soup and pie are served, often conceptually linked to the location. - #06 JASMINA GLAVINCENorth Macedonia“Every fibre carries a memory – every object is a silent invitation to reconnect with nature.”
Jasmina Glavince is a visual artist and craftswoman from North Macedonia. She works with handmade paper made from recycled materials, often in combination with other waste materials.
With a background in art history and archaeology, her practice bridges sustainable craftsmanship, cultural heritage and ecological design – connections between nature, memory and materials. She creates poetic and functional objects that reflect our relationship with nature and aim to transform waste into forms of renewal.
Her area of interest lies at the intersection of ecological craftsmanship, material storytelling and environmental renewal. She is particularly interested in the use of algae and other materials from lakes in paper production as a way of engaging directly with the ecology of lakes. By integrating waste and organic residues into her artistic process, she aims to highlight both the fragility and the regenerative potential of these ecosystems. European lakes, with their unique biodiversity and cultural history, are central to this research.
Pulpa is a design collection that recreates waste from lake environments as the basis for sustainable, handmade objects. By combining recycled paper, lake algae and imprints of cultural symbols, the collection bridges ecology, tradition and innovation. - #07 LINNEA EKELÖFSpain“I am drawn to the quiet, fragile moments we often miss.”
Linnéa Ekelöf is a Swedish multidisciplinary artist currently based in Barcelona who works with sculpture, installation and jewellery.
She explores materials such as glass, metal, bioplastic and natural materials to create fragile structures that exist between craft and technology. Her work often echoes natural cycles and reflects on tension, vulnerability and transformation.
Her practice investigates how fragile, organic materials, often shaped by water, can be transformed into objects that hold memory, tension and care. She is drawn to what the sea leaves behind: broken shells, fragments, debris and stories. She is interested in how these site-specific objects can serve as vessels for transformation and resilience.
WaveWorn is a small-scale collection of wearable objects made from sea-washed shells and other naturally discarded beach finds, joined and shaped using soft soldering. The collection explores how we can live in closer dialogue with the ecosystems around us, by listening, by clearing with care, and by honouring what has already been shaped by nature. Each piece allows space for vulnerability, transformation and repair.
She uses the Tiffany technique, a soft soldering method with lead-free tin and silver, to join fragile, water-worn materials without covering their raw, natural surfaces. - #08 MARIA KAZIMIERCZAKPoland“Design should flow like water – adaptable, vibrant and constantly evolving.”
Maria Kazimierczak was born and raised in the Silesia region of Poland, but currently studies and spends most of the year in Ireland. She is a
product designer who designs across the spectrum of objects beyond their function, adding beauty to everyday use.
In her projects, she often draws inspiration from water,
aquatic animals and sailing. Movement, flow and experimentation are
prominent features of her design. She loves to design works that are not rigid and static but require finesse and change, growth and development, like lakes and their biospheres. Her research focuses on bridging the gap between beauty, usability and sustainability in water-related design.
The Flux collection takes its name from the ever-changing movements and flow of water/fabric. In the collection, she works with old, discarded sails, as well as natural fibres and pigments. The natural dyes and fibres are used to create graphics representative of lakes on the sewn garments, and the stiffer, more structural sailcloth brings back the element of circularity and life by the water. - #09 MARIANNE HELLMANSweden"Art and craftsmanship are a universal language that reminds us to protect the water ecosystem for future generations.”
Marianne Hellman is a jewellery artist from Västerås. She is interested in the sustainable and respectful use of animal-based marine materials.
This involves raising questions about how and what we harvest from the lakes, how we can make use of it, and whether there are new ways of talking about the problems facing the marine ecosystem.
‘Great Lakes Bounty’ is the working title of the collection she has been working on within the project. "Everything we take from the lakes should be treated as treasures.
Art and craftsmanship are a universal language that tells us to take care of the aquatic ecosystem for future generations," she says. - #10 MÁRK SOMOGYIIreland“Through paper, binding and structure, I want to tell a story about fragility, transformation and renewal.”
Márk Somogyi is an art conservator, designer, bookbinder and educator, currently based in Dublin, Ireland.
His artistic practice combines traditional bookbinding with sustainable materials and experimental paper art. His artistic interest lies in exploring how the book as an object can reflect stories through structure, materials and gestures. Freshwater ecosystems – especially rivers, bogs and lakes – inspire him with their multi-layered histories, cycles of renewal and material riches.
Freshwater ecosystems – especially rivers, bogs and lakes – inspire him with their multi-layered histories, cycles of renewal and material riches. Through paper, binding and structure, he seeks to tell stories of fragility, transformation and rebirth.
Within the project, he has developed a travel book, Unfolding Waters, a series of hand-bound books with unusual folding structures (snowstorm book, Turkish map folding or lotus folding) inspired by the journey of water through freshwater landscapes – from source to wetland, from river to lake. It is ‘created by the lake’ both literally and conceptually, with marbled paper made from Irish moss, local dyes and pressed aquatic plants. - #11 SANDRA STIGERTSweden“I believe that traditional craftsmanship can be a powerful tool for communicating about the environment.”
Sandra Stigert lives and works in a small village in the Swedish countryside. She is an artist and craftswoman specialising in traditional woodworking, particularly wood carving. Through tactile creation, she combines storytelling, sustainability and cultural heritage.
She explores the relationship between wood, place and memory through traditional craftsmanship. She is particularly drawn to materials that carry a history and reflect their natural surroundings. Lakes and forests are central to both her inspiration and her life; their cycles and ecosystems shape the rhythm of her practice. Through woodcarving, she reflects on how we coexist with freshwater landscapes – and what they can teach us about care, time and renewal.
Her work Echoes of the Lake consists of hand-carved birds made from
recycled or beach-collected materials, shaped by both nature and tradition. The works reflect a dialogue between human hands and environmental forces – ripples, driftwood, movement. The project envisions a sustainable future as something poetic, rooted in local stories and respectful craftsmanship. - #12 OAZANorth Macedonia“Each work is both art and a silent protest against waste and water destruction.”
OAZA is an artist duo from North Macedonia who explore the interplay between creativity and sustainability. They create wearable art – such as fabric badges, jewellery and
pockets – from recycled materials that would otherwise be discarded: broken textiles, electrical waste and objects shaped by the lake.
The Anima Lacus collection – Latin for “the soul of the lake” – celebrates the vitality of the lake and our connection with nature. All pieces are handmade using slow, small-scale techniques and are based on circular principles.
By using materials that have been influenced by humans and processed by nature, they want to inspire care, reflection and respect for the environment we are part of.
Vänern Floating Market is part of the international EU project Lakescape, which focuses on the connection between people, water, design and sustainability. The project is based on the common challenges surrounding sustainable development in three European lake regions – Vänern in Sweden, Balaton in Hungary and Ohrid in North Macedonia.
Through creative processes, the project explores how we humans can live more sustainably and in harmony with our lakes and waterways. Vänern Floating Market is the public result of this work – a place where twelve exhibitors from the project showcase the works that have emerged from this international collaboration. Here, design, craftsmanship and environmental awareness come together, where aquatic environments are seen both as a source of creativity and a shared responsibility.
