translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
080908: MAK – Applied Arts/Contemporary Art: Focus on artists # 4: Franz West: Sit on My Chair, Lay on My Bed
MAK – Applied Arts/Contemporary Art: Focus on artists # 4: Franz West: Sit on My Chair, Lay on My Bed
When form follows function
Franz West’s furniture designs have a high recall value ever since the documenta X in Kassel, where numerous variations of West’s Doku chair could be found in the dX exhibit hall. The current exhibit at the MAK “Sit on My Chair, Lay on My Bed” displays a synopsis of West’s work. Artmagazine editor Barbara Vischer is the curator of this show, which, as the title suggests, is conceptualised as an invitation to actually use the individual objects.
West’s furniture designs present themselves in unusual forms and materials, sometimes combined with metal or plaster, and which focus on the relationship between human beings and the environment. Be it the lounge chair with its linen cover and integrated headphones or the metal seat sculpture Eo Ipso: the design, as well as the material, are often disconcerting, while they are user friendly and thereby support the applied aspect of art and everyday life.
The exhibit was jointly organized by Peter Noever and Franz West. West’s irony is present in all of his works and points to the necessity of leaving one’s normative viewpoint out of everyday life.
MAK-Applied Arts/Contemporary Art
1010 Vienna, Stubenring 5, until 28. 09. 2008
www.mak.at
080908
MAK - Museum für angewandte Kunst
1010 Wien, Stubenring 5
Tel: +43 1 711 36-0, Fax: +43 1 713 10 26
Email: office@mak.at
http://www.mak.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di 10-21, Mi-So 10-18 h
MAK - Museum für angewandte Kunst
1010 Wien, Stubenring 5
Tel: +43 1 711 36-0, Fax: +43 1 713 10 26
Email: office@mak.at
http://www.mak.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di 10-21, Mi-So 10-18 h