Political chairs
Festival della Creativita (Firenze, Italy)
21-24 october 2010
art for politics
Four seats representing political ideals surround a table that is without corners, in a fixed postion and creates the image of an infinite abyss in the center by means of a series of strategically positioned two-ways mirrors. The idea was to create a place where ideas could be discussed while keeping in mind opposing ideas and always remembering that the discussion is an unending one and that there is always the possibility of new ideas.
The chair of anarchy
“Structure is not a necessarily part of a Structure” is the title of this piece, because it really captures the essence of anarchic thought. Most people look at a society and they think of the government like a chair seat. That without the seat of power the whole chair is doomed to the dump. The anarchist theory says that when the seat of power is gone then the opportunity for individual growth and liberty becomes available. the strands of wire which are chaotically crossing there way across the empty expanse create a scary looking mesh that doesn¿t appear to be comfortable at all from the look of it. Of course it is really comfortable and you see that the wires don¿t go completely crazy, as they are still bound by the old frame of the seat of power. To us this frame represents the natural law that frames most human action and political law also. The strands represent the individuals in the society with the freedom to act how they choose and the result represents how little their individual choices actually matter to the rest of us despite what the furniture manufactures and governments of the world would have us believe. The media has convinced us to conform protection racket of the government and when the newsman takes a break advertisements take over and re-convince us to conform to the shapes and structures that fill our homes.
The chair of communism
“The thread alone doesn’t matter when thread together” is what we settled on for this incredibly worthwhile struggle. It is maybe the best example we have of finding a way to be creative “inside the box”. Nearly every step of this chair was unplanned and came about as a result of our surroundings and circumstances. The frame was found along a windy Tuscan road. It was amazingly beautiful stainless steel tubing and we couldn¿t resist it even if the seat and backing were completely ruined. The chair became an actual idea a few days later when it was decided that the chair would be a gift from me to Lyyli’s father for his birthday a few weeks ahead.
This of course meant that it had to be good and so the chair became the center of all debate, activity and creativity for the next three weeks or so. It is made of roughly 200 meters of thin gauge copper wire, two towel rack tubes, two cables from a clothes line, a lot of labour and a rather creative use of a stylized communist stencil used by a prominent Italian artist. The idea was to use enough thread to create a sheet of metal fabric to sit on and the result is there..
The chair of democracy
Mimicking the ideal myth of democracy the chair is made from different colored and different kinds of fabric, all from different origins. To be a real democratic chair we figured it had not only to represent diversity but also contain a mechanism for improvement and addition. To represent this we placed a box underneath the chair amidst the fabric filled with more fabric strips both torn and untorn that can be added to the chair with some safety pins we supplied. We actually intended to expose a cruel joke here, we wanted to allow people to the opportunity to ” mess up” the beautiful array we had so lovingly constructed. We figured some people would add with taste but that a good amount of people would just thoughtlessly add whatever. Our theory was that the cacophony of random and uncoordinated contributions would show itself to be inferior result to the concentrated and careful efforts of a few. The hope was that the chair would expand people¿s perception about the often unquestioned wisdom of the famous democratic system.
The chair of capitalism
Capitalism May Not be pretty, but it sure is comfy when you are sitting on top.
It may have been one of the last things to be conceived not to mention built for the project but as a comedy piece with a purpose it has a special place in our hearts. The piece itself is made out of a unneeded canvas cabana roof from Viareggio, the elastic cords from said canvas to give the bag its shape and the bag is stuffed full of a very beautiful foam mattress that was found outside of the university. To the tie the bag off we found a bright orange rope and discovered that a hangmans noose is perhaps a little easier to tie than it should be.
The symbol on the side of the bag is called a SEL and it is the stylized combination of the dollar, euro and pound ($,€,£). Though capitalism has found its way into lives and economies of nearly every “civilized” country in the world, these currencies stand out in my mind as the flagship currencies of capitalism. As a satiric piece presented by an American to a series of Europeans (including the UK of course), we also felt it was important to treat all currencies in an equally ironic light.
