Cologne Fine Art Design Lounge 2010
The work of the Hamburg-based artist and designer Florian Borkenhagen is related to the Arte Povera tradition, which turns everyday objects into works of art and lends them a deeper meaning by transfiguring the simplest of materials. Especially for the Cologne Fine Art Design Lounge, Borkenhagen has designed a seating installation consisting of collected chairs, armchairs, sofas and found objects from Hamburg Harbour. Stories, symbols and myths - these are things that never die, and in their primal nature they form a kind of prototype of human culture. Again and again, they are reinterpreted and tested to see how they interact and how mobile they are.
In his works, Borkenhagen is a master of subtle humor and multiple layers of meaning. He invites visitors to sit on various chairs, seating arrangements and contraptions that might look simple and ordinary at first sight but acquire a deeper meaning upon closer inspection. The central element of the installation is a carousel that rotates very slowly. Equipped with old chairs and a couple of colourful banners, it suggests the lightheartedness of childhood while at the same time offering an overview of the possible tribulations of aging and of life in general. 'Silver Girls' is a wheelchair made for three. It's practical, witty, communicative - or perhaps somewhat unsettling, in view of the many changes in the healthcare sector. Visitors who are so inclined can philosophically contemplate the ups and downs of human life, or they can simply relax and pause for a moment. 'Sir Manfred' invites the visitor to sit on a high seat, 'Dondolo' is for swinging on, and the sofa called 'Liegeplatz' (Berth) is just right for a comfortable sit-down. Visitors who would like to feel like a sultan for once in their lives can have a seat on 'Suleiman'. Life is colourful, always in motion and yet looking for a place to rest - that's the motto of many works by Florian Borkenhagen, and his latest installation in the Cologne Fine Art Design Lounge is no exception.
Florian Borkenhagen (*born on 27th October 1959 in Frankfurt a. M.) received a degree after completing his studies at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. His works have been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums in Europe and the USA since 1982. After participating in documenta 8 in Kassel (1987) and projects in Rome, Paris and Hamburg, he lived and worked from 1990 to 1995 in Como, Italy, where he established the 'Laboratorio Como'. The works he created during this period deal with the theme of 'industrial archaeology'. In 1997 he was one of the initiators of the project 'First Aid for Bad Art', and between 1998 and 2000 he received worldwide publicity for his interactive project 'travel a head', which involved transporting a four-metre-high sculpture of a human head around the globe on a series of container ships. He has staged many individual exhibitions in Germany and abroad. In 2009 Borkenhagen initiated and produced the exhibition 'TransSakrales' exclusively for gabrielle ammann // gallery. Since 2005 Borkenhagen has been a Professor of Design at the Academy of Fashion & Design in Hamburg, where he primarily teaches in the areas of design methodology and product development.
