In 2021, the The Finnland Institute in Germany, once again supported a Finnish designer by sponsoring his residency at Schloss Hollenegg. Tuomas Markunpoika is a Finnish designer who lives and works in Berlin. In 2012 he established ‘Studio Markunpoika’ after graduating with an MA in Contextual Design from the Design Academy Eindhoven. The work of Studio Markunpoika oscillates between design and art, industry and craft. Each work reflects the designer’s attraction for the interaction between the physical and metaphysical world; his objects are not just “material” but they reveal the mysterious memories and sentimental values attributed to them. Whether functional or merely sculptural, Markunpoika’s work invites us to reflect upon the notion of value and to explore objects beyond their predictable meaning.

For Schloss Hollenegg Tuomas worked on the doorway as a symbolic passage between two worlds. He has recreated, in his own style, one of the sumptuous wooden doorways in the Tapestries rooms and “displaced” it to the courtyard of the castle. A doorway is a symbolic passage between two worlds. Passage is an ornamental door frame installed in the courtyard of Schloss Hollenegg. It is a copy of an existing door frame in the Tapestries Room, which Tuomas Markunpoika remade in his own style, with polystyrene and a polymer coating. In Schloss Hollenegg, many decorative ornaments depict events or styles from as far back as the 13th century but are, in fact, only a few hundred years old. They are copies to replace lost context and history or to animate the narrative of the castle. Markunpoika connects this practice to the development of Passage: the concept of copying can be understood in various ways. In China, there are two different ideas of a copy. Fangzhipin are imitations where the difference from the original is noticeable, such as miniature models on sale in a museum shop. The second concept for a copy is fuzhipin, these are exact reproductions of the original, which are considered of equal value to the original, with no negative connotations. In opposition to the West, where original elements are treated like relics, the East has developed a completely different technique of preservation that might be more effective than conservation or restoration: it takes place through continual reproduction.