A Chair and You

Chairs like you have never seen before: in the exhibition A Chair and You, these everyday objects have become the stars of an immersive performance. From 26 September, Kunsthal Rotterdam is presenting a major retrospective based on one of the world’s most important private collections of chairs, brought together by collector Thierry Barbier-Mueller and staged by Robert Wilson. Offering visitors a multisensory experience, this total installation in HALL 2 highlights the significance and almost theatrical power of chairs.

The presentation of around 150 chairs by 124 designers from the collection of Thierry Barbier-Mueller (1960–2023) was entrusted to the American director, set designer, and artist Robert Wilson (1941–2025). Inspired by the performing arts, Wilson used light, sound, and scenography to create four themed environments around these chairs. They vary from a space with organic shapes and unexpected materials to an environment evoking a sense of tranquillity and order, with clean lines and soft colours referencing modernist architecture. Wilson’s impressive set designs for A Chair and You immerse visitors in layered scenes, transforming chairs into the protagonists of a theatrical experience.

The Thierry Barbier-Mueller Collection At the end of the 1990s, Geneva-based entrepreneur and collector Thierry Barbier-Mueller started collecting chairs with a sculptural quality that reaches far beyond traditional approaches to chair design. Spontaneous discoveries and personal encounters resulted in a collection consisting of more than 650 pieces, spanning a period from the 1960s until now. The selection for the exhibition at the Kunsthal features 150 extraordinary chairs by artists, designers, and architects like Ettore Sottsass, Ron Arad, Martino Gamper, Maarten Baas, Donald Judd, Niki de Saint Phalle, Lawrence Weiner, and Franz West.

Bright Space

In the Bright Space, the first section of the exhibition, visitors will feel like they have stepped into a Jackson Pollock painting. Paul Reeves’ track Happy Chappy serves as the catchy soundtrack to this playful and colourful environment. Bathing in bright light, islands of expressive chairs make up a lively landscape. The chairs were intuitively divided into groups around themes like animal prints, contrasts, unusual shapes, humour, and technique. For Hairy Chair (2011), Belgian designer Charles Kaisin (1972) covered a found chair in strips of shredded paper, resulting in a soft, almost animal-fur-like surface. For his Classroom Chair (1971), German designer Stefan Wewerka (1928–2013) bent a simple, red school chair into a circular construction. Having lost its original function, the chair appears to be rebelling: the object arches its back, thereby pushing up its user, who will eventually slide off.

Medium Space

The Medium Space is characterised by tranquillity, minimalism and geometry. Its clean lines and neutral colour palette were inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion. The mechanical sounds visitors hear in this open space enhance the architectural quality of the chairs that enter into a dialogue with the minimalist scenery. This section includes the Amadeus Chairs (1991), a series of chairs Robert Wilson designed for a production of the opera The Magic Flute. The steel objects with elegant lines resembling branches tie in with a forest-like set design.

Dark Space

The changing spotlights in the Dark Space section showcase alternating designs, thereby making it seem as if the objects are afloat in the darkness, like stars in a planetarium. Wilson guides visitors past a selection of remarkable chairs. For Redesigned ZigZag (1978), for instance, Alessandro Mendini (1931–2019) reinterpreted an iconic chair by Gerrit Rietveld to create a playfully distorted object that challenges the ‘rules’ of design. Fascinated by metal, for Second-Hand Rose, designer Ron Arad (1951) wrapped an existing chair in copper and stainless steel plates. He thus created a second layer inviting spectators to experience the object in new ways.

Kaleidoscope

With a soundtrack courtesy of Lou Reed’s electric guitar, the sculptural, metal chairs in this mirrored cube appear to endlessly vanish into this reflective space. With its silver-coloured surface, Philipp Aduatz’s (1982) Melting Chair (2011) almost seems to dissolve in its surroundings. The chair appears to be melting, while at the same time remaining fully functional.

Collaboration

The exhibition is realised in close collaboration with Fondation Musée Barbier-Mueller in Geneva. The first venue was realised in coproduction with mudac – Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts in Lausanne in 2022.