Utrecht invited us to take part in a MUJI exhibition around a new paper chair at ATELIER MUJI, Mujirushi Ryohin Yurakucho from August 20 to September 8, 2010. The idea of the project is to explore the joy of making the paper chair by hands and find different ways to use it through asking 50 designers to modify the product and create a special chair for an exhibition. We made ‘Rinne / 輪廻’, a paper chair reincarnated as nutritious ash for plants.
The MUJI paper chair. Photo courtesy of MUJI.
For the paper chair exhibition, we (and 49 other designers) were sent a chair and asked to make something special out of it by painting or modifying it in other ways. In the end, the custom chairs would be exhibited and finally donated to local kindergartens. We made ‘Rinne / 輪廻’ which is a study on the life of a paper chair that can be used as nutrition for growing plants after its original function as a piece of furniture to sit on. Our piece will be given to children in the form of a flower.
Rinne / 輪廻
Paper chairs have a life. When they’ve done their job, they can reincarnate as nutritious ash for plants. We made kindlings, and finally a small bonfire out of the paper chair. It kept us warm on a cold night in Berlin. Next, you can give the chair a new life by planting flower seeds to a mix of earth and the ash from the fire – rich in calcium and potassium, and thus vital to healthy and strong plant growth.
Photos by Jenna.
Thank you Elisabeth, Martti, Norman and Tesalia!