Speaker by Frederik Gustav reflects the rhythms of O Days Festival in Copenhagen
Copenhagen-based studio Frederik Gustav has created Speaker, a reflective aluminium installation for O Days Festival 2026 in Copenhagen. The project translates references from music into a spatial composition of repeated circular forms. Commissioned for the festival, the work is built from circular-brushed aluminium panels arranged across a curved structure. Light, movement, and surrounding activity continually alter its surface, allowing the installation to register the changing atmosphere of the site throughout the day.
The form is defined by repetition, with each aluminium panel treated with a circular-brushed finish that creates subtle variations in reflection and brightness depending on the viewer’s position. Together, the individual discs form a larger curved field that appears to shift as people move around it. From certain angles, the surface reads as a continuous metallic volume, while from others the separate elements become more pronounced. This visual instability gives Speaker a sense of movement without relying on mechanical or digital components.
The project draws on the visual language of music equipment, particularly the circular geometry associated with speaker cones and sound systems, but Frederik Gustav translates these references into a broader structural composition. Repetition introduces a sense of rhythm and sequence across the surface, while the curvature of the installation creates changing relationships between the individual elements. In this way, qualities associated with sound are expressed through form, material, and spatial experience.
Speaker also continues the studio’s wider interest in construction and material behaviour. Frederik Gustav often works with exposed structural systems, allowing frameworks, connections, and fabrication techniques to remain legible within the finished piece. Construction is treated as part of the design language itself, with technical decisions contributing directly to the character of the work. In Speaker, aluminium becomes both a structural and visual element, while its brushed finish strengthens the relationship between the installation and the changing conditions around it.
Founded by Frederik Weber and Gustav Dupont after their studies at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Frederik Gustav works across design, architecture, craftsmanship, and installation. From its workshop on Amager, the studio develops objects and spatial works through direct experimentation with materials and building methods. Industrial and architectural structures frequently inform its projects, appearing through details of support, repetition, assembly, and proportion that are carried into new contexts.
At O Days Festival, Speaker operates within a temporary environment shaped by music, crowds, and changing daylight. Its curved form encourages visitors to experience the installation from different positions, while the reflective aluminium captures fragments of the surrounding space and briefly incorporates the audience into the work itself. These shifting conditions allow the project to evolve throughout the festival, extending Frederik Gustav’s ongoing research into how structure, material, and sensory experience can work together within a single physical language.
All images by Frederik Gustav, shared with permission
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