Sväva

Sväva is a term used in Swedish to denote the act of floating or hovering. In contemporary discourse it is often adopted as a label for a family of artistic, design, and media practices that emphasize lightness, suspended form, and aeration. The word itself derives from the Swedish verb sväva, meaning to float.

In art and design, sväva describes installations and objects engineered to appear buoyant or weightless. Common approaches include the use of translucent fabrics, thin structural elements, hidden supports, and light materials to create perceptual suspension. Works associated with sväva frequently incorporate wind, air, or kinetic components to enhance the impression of floating behavior. The concept also appears as a recurring title or theme in independent exhibitions and design journals.

In architecture and product design, sväva can refer to furniture or spatial concepts that give the impression of hovering or floating within a space, often achieved through cantilevers, concealed supports, or negative space.

In literature and music, the term is used metaphorically to describe moods of liminality, transition, or boundary-crossing between genres and states. It is commonly associated with dreamlike or ethereal atmospheres and with ideas that drift between concrete and abstract meanings.

See also: buoyancy, levitation, hovercraft, drift, suspension, Swedish language.