Sin lugar

Daniel Yacubovich

03/04/03. (Sala 211)

He has designed and made chairs inspired by his experiences as an immigrant; the installation of these chairs, “No Singular Place”, took place at La Sala Vinçon.

Daniel Yacubovich explains the concept of the exhibition thus:

“The chair is a concrete object of design that highlights the traditional relationships between presentation and representation. It has a material, aesthetic function, but also a symbolic one, since it is also a place, but not only a physical one. That is why we say “This place is taken” or “Save my place”, and the famous saying “He who went to Seville, lost his seat”. Here the seat is replaced by a place, in this case the city of Seville. In saying these phrases it is as if a historical situation were once again manifesting itself in the sedentary / nomadic dichotomy and manifesting itself in our symbolic and physical relationship with the object.”

“This object has been part of the installation Sin lugar Singular at La Sala Vinçon in Barcelona. The project was founded on both artistic experiences and the world of object design. The differences that could contain the artistic and design origin, constituted the engine of a dialectic that allowed me to forge its creative language. With this work I was interested in dealing with our attitude towards the world, very conditioned to the places we occupy, our destinies and our origins. The final objective was to mark an object that assumes in its design and in its use characteristics of the utopian, since one part of the object is sedentary and another part is nomadic.”

“In 2004 I designed a series of seats, chairs that were installed in the space of La Sala Vinçon in Barcelona under the title of Sin Lugar – Singular. 

The emblematic chair of the installation had four legs, four crossbars and two arms that were embedded on the extension of the 2 back legs at the height of the backrest. But the chair had no seat or backrest. It was a very minimalist structure, welded with iron rods fourteen millimeters in diameter. It was a sculpture for any place, which could become a functional object for an individual person, just like the log or the stone on the road. The seat and back of this sculpture chair was the leather coat I was wearing when I entered the room. The first procedure was to take it off and fit it into the structure and sit on the coat. The coat was also designed to support my weight. At the end of the exhibition, I undressed the chair again, put on the coat and left for somewhere else. Those of us who have traveled and emigrated from our original homeland carry with us aspects and contents that manifest themselves within the societies into which we are integrated to one extent or another. The fundamental fact is the rupture between the nomadic dimension and the sedentary dimension. This rupture must manifest itself symbolically but also physically in the projection of the object, without a singular place.”

“The second chair that participated in the installation Sin Lugar- Singular was the black Samsa chair, from whose arms extended an extension of wires covered with foam rubber that could be spatially transformed. This is another spatial and real metamorphosis of the body and based on the story of Kafka’s Metamorphosis. It is a metaphor for another metamorphosis that seeks to merge with the user’s body from the journey that culminates in the seat. Migration transforms us from within. The change of space and adaptation to a new reality means that we have to shed one skin and begin to live with a new one. This chair, although somewhat strange in its appearance, is suitable for older people with physical handicaps to manipulate easily while exercising physically and creating different shapes with the wires covered in foam rubber.” 

“The third chair on display was Patience. It is covered with a rigid leather, which over time and with use, adapts to the shape of the particular person’s seat, like a shoe that adjusts with the steps that are added. This was the first version and there is a taller version and an armchair type”.

(Excerpts from the author’s book “Adaptación a Utopía”).

Multidisciplinary artist. Studied painting, drawing and lithography at art academies in Tel Aviv. Studied contemporary art at the Open University of Tel Aviv. Graduated in Multidisciplinary Design at Ramon Llull University. Professor at the School of Design, ESDI, Ramon Llull University. Subject: Theory and Workshop of Form and Color. He teaches Art classes in his studio.