converted
:mentalKLINIK_yasemin baydar, birol demir
Tokyo_2007_ X-CUBE© locker
15 December_till the work will disappear
‘Off the record’ project by Eric Van Hove
In a public space, it is not common to carry a chair with you. It is not common to keep it in a locker either. But if a public space is converted to an art space, then you can expect the uncommon/abnormal. We create an encounter of a converted piece with a converted space. The THONET chair is cutted in order to fit the X-CUBE© locker system box.. All pieces are signed by :mentalKLINIK.
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Particular aspects of a mass-produced object in the public space
“converted”
An exhibition analysis for :mentalKLİNİK
exhibition: off the record #2
location: one of the X-CUBE lockers at Shimbashi metro station in Tokyo, Japan.
curator: Eric Van Hove
one of the paticipants: :mentalKLİNİK, Yasemin Baydar, Birol Demir
name of the work: “converted”
:mentalKLİNİK’s brief explanation: “ Carrying a chair in a public sphere is not something usually done. Another unusual thing would be keeping the chair in a locker.
defination of the location: The X-CUBE lockers in the metro stations have got a lock-system that you can turn them on and off through your cell phone and again through your cell phone you can forward your password to some other users. You may leave anything to anybody into these lockers, which gives you 3 hours in every use for 100 Japanese Yen. A place, where you keep/hold and swap things.
sent, moved / forwarded, received, set, left, positioned, stolen, consumed: Thonet’ chair no.14 (der Konsumsessel), “converted”.
time of the exhibition: has been started. whenever it finishes.
the identity of the message: First produced in 1859. Two copies out of 30 million, which have been put on the market until 1930, have been searched, found and changed-converted in december, 2007 by :mentalKLİNİK. One of them has been sent to Tokyo.
production, alternation, conversion: After producing 6 pieces, by getting screwed the chair, it comes together using ‘the bending patented wood techique’ that Thonet has improved. Besides “sitting”, the only material that has been used is wood. Every piece has been produced by using the same technique. (For Its ergonomics, lightness, simpleness, simple form conception, structure that has been designed according to serial production -according to some sources it’s been produced over 50 million-
, it is meant to be an industrial design icon.
In december 2007,after a deep research in Istanbul, two pieces of Chair no.14 which production dates couldn’t be defined certainly were bought from their owners. Got cleaned. Without demounting, converting the chairs were decided. By summing up the pieces that makes the structure itself to make it ‘converted’ would be a demolishing process. By producing the pieces and putting them together, by getting reversed the furnishing production flow that is leaning against ‘the create integrity principle’. it was cut perfectly the way that never could be put together again as :mentalKLİNİK have designated. Despite each chair and its cut pieces still keep the original production idea/memory and form aspect, they have become a bunch of new pieces that have their own aesthetics.
being sent and taken over: The converted :mentalKLİNİK pieces of a chair have been packed up and sent out. (I assume that Thonet has packed and sent the chair in pieces that is made up of many pieces to many spots in the world.) The things that have been taken out of the package which opened by the exhibition assistants have been left into a package. I don’t know if there are anymore pieces left in the package.
note of the analyst: As the original chair no:14 that have been consumed by time, it is obvious that each “converted” piece in the package will be taken away to different places by different people, and there will be no possibility to track them down. The other common thing / relation is about the intersection of the public sphere and private sphere.
We perceive that the common space is converted by the curator into an art space and the mass production object (no.14) is converted into an art piece. I can say that the concept: “converting”, can be experienced continuously (qua this selected concept) in every section of :mentalKLİNİK’’s thinking, producing and narrating process. “Art allows”... I would like to add an expression to that: “repeat makes it perfect”. One more thing: I think that :mentalKLINIK is interested in not only the final product but also its production process, the experiencing process with itself, the feedbacks, stories and disappearances.
January 2008 Zehra Uçar
:mentalKLİNİK
ıhlamur yolu, opera palas apartmanı no: 33/35 d.6 topagacı/nişantaşı_istanbul_turkey
mental@mentalklinik.com
http://www.mentalklinik.com/
http://www.documentalklinik.com/
