WE WANT YOUR CHAIR!
What?
We would like to take your chair on a fantastic journey.
For our forthcoming exhibition The Final Bid with the British artist Michael Pinsky, on show at the Draiflessen Collection starting in the fall of 2022, we would like to borrow chairs that you no longer need, in order to create an extraordinary moving sculpture in our museum. In return, we will try to sell your chair, whereby all the proceeds will go to you or can be donated to a charitable project.
How?
To get involved, please email us at finalbid@draiflessen.com no later than September 12, 2022, with the following information:
- a photo of your chair in its current location
- a few details about its history (optional)
Or, bring along your chair to show us in person on September 3, 2022, between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Important: We are not only looking for design objects, but any chair is welcome. However, it should be in good condition (functional, no insect infestation) and weigh no more than 15 kg. Unfortunately, we cannot accept armchairs.
Important: We are not only looking for design objects, but any chair is welcome. However, it should be in good condition (functional, no insect infestation) and weigh no more than 15 kg. Unfortunately, we cannot accept armchairs.
The Artwork THE FINAL BID
What do you think makes up the largest slice of your personal carbon footprint?
Few people are aware that our fast-paced consumerism accounts for over 41 percent of our average greenhouse gas emissions. The manufacture of goods is particularly energy-intensive, and even much-vaunted recycling represents no real alternative, since only a portion of materials can be reused, and the recycling process, too, consumes energy. We are nevertheless—or indeed for this very reason—not only part of the problem, but also very much part of the solution! In fact, one of the most effective ways of combating the climate crisis is to sell and buy things that already exist, in order to practice a mindful use of resources. Sustainable action is thus something feasible for all.
This guiding principle is the focus of the large-scale installation THE FINAL BID, which Michael Pinsky will be creating for the very first time at the Draiflessen Collection—with the aid of chairs.
Such an everyday object as a chair passes through various life cycles. First, various raw materials are needed to make it. Then it stands in the furniture store, is purchased by us and transported home. Over the years, it is used in multiple ways—it is sat on and even stood on when we don’t have a ladder close by. At some point, it might simply become somewhere to stack magazines or place potted plants, or it may go down into the basement as a spare chair. Whereas furniture in the past remained in service for decades, nowadays we are quick to buy a new chair and throw away the old one.
At our museum, Michael Pinsky leads us through a different way of doing things: he is gathering together well over a hundred used chairs—contributed to the art project by residents from the surrounding region—and then selling them as “new” old chairs. As part of an auction process, bids for the chairs can be made both during a visit to the museum and on our website. As different bids come in, the chairs form constantly changing sculptural ensembles in the exhibition space, enriching their respective life cycles with a new phase.
Through his project, Pinsky is creating an extensive network of exchange, but he is also offering us the opportunity to reexamine objects we have previously taken for granted.
More information about the project can be found here.
THE FINAL BID, 2022
| © Michael Pinsky
The Artist
In his works of art, the British artist Michael Pinsky (b. 1967) explores humanity’s geopolitical impact on its environment—an impact that can encompass the ecological footprint of each individual, but also the ways in which humans interact. He thereby challenges the status quo, and, through artworks often aimed at participation and exchange, he critiques our throw-away mindset and insatiably consumerist lifestyle, which not only place excess strain on the environment but, in the long term, also threaten our very existence.
Rather than simply pointing an admonishing finger, however, the artist is concerned with developing a dialogue and enagaging in joint, solution-oriented action—because we cannot just carry on as before and expect things to change.
Pinsky’s work has been shown at various venues, including: Tate Britain, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chengdu, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art, Armory Center for the Arts, Los Angeles, and International Architectural Biennale Rotterdam.
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Michael Pinsky, 2021, Courtesy der Künstler
| © Michael Pinsky, Foto/ photo: Sophie Mitchell