Superbox II
Ineke Hans – Seven Chairs in Seven Days
Exhibition — Sep 5 until Oct 24, 2015
This fall, the second edition of Superbox features seven chairs by designer Ineke Hans. Each chair is named after a day of the week.
The Superbox, in which the chairs are displayed, was designed especially for the Stedelijk by EventArchitectuur to present the museum’s new design acquisitions. This exhibition model derives its name from the eponymous cabinet designed by Ettore Sottsass, which went on view last year in the first edition of Superbox.
Superbox II will be on display at the same time as the exhibition The Best Designed Books 2014.
About Ineke Hans- Seven Chairs in Seven Days
The series Seven Chairs in Seven Days, designed by Ineke Hans, consists of seven chairs named after a different weekday. The chairs are made from underlayment, an inexpensive type of plywood. Hans conceived the series in 1993 as a ‘rapid, intuitive project’, before going to London to study at the Royal College of Art. Until 1995, she worked on the series during her holidays in Holland as a way of developing a distinctive signature. She wanted to shake off the influence of Bořek Šípek, with whom she worked for a while, and of the Arnhem Oktobergroep, which was based in the city where she first studied. These designers placed greater emphasis on decoration and the more artisanal aspects of design. For this series of chairs, Hans used explicit, archetypal forms with the eloquence of a pictogram. Her later designs also explore the associations that shapes evoke and the relationship between man and object.
Axel and Heike Varekamp, who bought the complete series in 1995-1996, recently gifted Seven Chairs in Seven Days to the Stedelijk Museum. The designs are presented in the Superbox, designed especially for the museum to present new additions to its design collection.
The Best Designed Books
Superbox II will be on view concurrently with The Best Designed Books 2014 (gallery 0.28).