The inspiration for Social-classroom chair installation is the theories of Karl Marx and Pierre Bourdieu regarding social class division. Within Marxist class theory, the structure of the production process is the basis of class construction. For Marx, a class is a group with internal tendencies and interests that differ from those of other social groups, the basis of fundamental antagonism between such groups. In Pierre Bourdieu's classic approach, social classes are divided into dominant, middle, and lower. The main criteria for division are the level of social, cultural, economic, and symbolic capital. Each class is divided into three factions: dominant, intermediate, and dominated. The play with the concept of a classroom chair results from the paradox of the word class's ambiguity—understood as both a class in school (the education system) and a social class. The ambiguity occurs in languages of Indo-European origin.
Polish: klasa społeczna / klasa szkolna, English: social class / school class, French: classe sociale / classe scolaire, German: soziale Klasse / Schulklasse, Italian: classe sociale / classe scolastica, Ukrainian: соціальний клас / шкільний клас, Greek: κοινωνική τάξη / σχολική τάξη
The word class looks the same regardless of its meaning, which allows for rhetorical play with this concept's meaning. My reasoning revolves around the concept of "class." In a school classroom, children sit on chairs, study to acquire knowledge and pass exams that allow them to apply to a social class appropriate to their competencies.
The
Social-classroom chair installation comprises 111 weird chairs haphazardly scattered throughout the space. Each chair is constructed in such a way that it consists of different, incompatible chair fragments:- very luxurious - representing the desire for wealth, often the so-called nouveau riche - manifestations of sudden enrichment, excessive demonstration of financial status,- modernist - representing the desire for social advancement,- completely ordinary - representing concentration on work, production of practical objects,- old worn-out - representing low social status, material poverty.
The chairs may seem worn out, barely standing on their legs—this is due to the risky construction involved in combining different chairs into one.Each chair has pillows made of shiny fabric with various deformed warning symbols embroidered on them - to be careful
