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Art Direction

MODU Balance Beams

Photography by Katrine Møbius

Two green-coloured MODU balance beams at different heights, supported by mint-coloured blocks against a blue backdrop.
A smiling child in beige dungarees sits behind a green-coloured MODU beam, arms draped over it and legs outstretched against a blue backdrop.

I remember wanting to explore everything as a child: smell it, feel it, jump over it, jump in it. But I also remember sitting, getting a bit bored, looking out of the window and trying to figure out the world. Both sides mattered in our art direction for the MODU Balance Beams. Balancing has something inherently childish about it, like crossing a stream on a piece of wood and hoping not to fall in. We wanted to capture that energy alongside the quieter moments of sitting and looking, when everything still feels new.

A barefoot child holds tall grasses in front of their face while standing on a green-coloured MODU balance beam against a pale background.
As a child, looking was never quite enough. You had to touch things, smell them, find out what they felt like.
A child faces a window while balancing on green-coloured MODU beams arranged in a zigzag across a sunlit parquet floor.
A child sits sideways on a raised green-coloured MODU beam, bare feet outstretched, with sunlight falling across the wooden floor.

The warmth of photographs from the ’70s led us to analogue film and coloured paper backgrounds that are very obviously coloured paper. There’s something a bit naive about them, like old school portraits or a visit to a slightly crappy photographer. That feeling was part of what we liked: the warmth, the vibrant colours, the sense of being safe in your own little bubble. We hoped the photographs would speak to adults, too. Children play and reflect; as adults, we often keep the reflecting and forget the playing. These images are also a reminder to ourselves to look up, smell the flowers, and let something other than the next task catch our attention.

A child sits in profile on a tall MODU structure of green-coloured beams and mint-coloured blocks, one foot dangling, against a cream-coloured backdrop.
I remember sitting and wondering why the sun comes up in the morning. That was part of childhood, too.
Close-up of bare feet on a green-coloured MODU balance beam, toes extending over the edge, with sunlight and shadows across the parquet floor.
A child runs beside pale green MODU beams on orange-coloured blocks in a room with green walls and strong sunlight across the floor.
Two green MODU beams stacked on mint-coloured blocks, with an orange flower on a cream paper backdrop whose lower edge reveals the studio floor.
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