Platz Nehmen!

Chairs are mass-produced or design objects, a testament to social status and craftsmanship, to ergonomics and creativity. Ultimately, a chair is always more than just a chair – it is a model for society and a way of life: Tell me how you sit, and I'll tell you who you are.

Moritz Holfelder demonstrates a special sensitivity for chairs in his series "Take a Seat!". He photographs exposed seating in nature and urban landscapes, just as he finds it. He lets them tell stories of presence and absence: Who once owned them? Who sat on them? What was thought, done, or spoken on them? Why were they placed outside? They often show signs of weathering or are already disintegrating. How long have they been standing/lying there?

Chairs bear witness to loneliness as well as to sociability, to resilience and transience. To construction and statics. The architect Peter Zumthor, a trained carpenter, once said: "Anyone who can build a chair can also build a house." It's no wonder, then, that many architects design the appropriate furniture for their buildings. A chair is the smallest inhabitable house. The purest form of settledness.

The exhibition touches on all these aspects – slides of chairs are displayed on light tables, large-format photographs hang on the walls, and installation-based objets trouvés are also on display. Quotations from great architects surround the chair as a miniature house; and the exhibition recalls the history of the exhibition space at the Viktualienmarkt, the high-rise bunker that served as a chair warehouse after the Second World War. Two accompanying panel discussions with designers, architects, and manufacturers on the future of seating will take place.

Opening: September 16, 2025, 7 p.m.

Speakers: Nicola Borgmann, Moritz Holfelder