'Man Machine' exhibition01. Mar2014

TAGS: glass, pistons, oak, silicone

Man-Machine exhibition held at Galerie Kreo in Paris from February 13th to May 17th, 2014 shows the latest works of Konstantin Grcic.

Konstantin Grcic tried a new approach on furniture objects as we know them. Using tempered glass used, float glass, pneumatic pistons and silicone he assembled a whole range of furniture entirely made of glass The pieces are available in short series, numbered & signed.

"For his new furniture collection Man Machine taken from the name of the 1978 album by legendary group Kraftwerk he has worked exclusively in glass, a common enough material and yet one rarely seen in the field of contemporary design. Examples are few and far between in the discipline, with the exception of Shiro Kuramata’s Glass Chair (1976) and a handful of designs by Fontana Arte. All the odds are that Man Machine will write a new chapter of its own, so singular is the collection and so imposing in its purity." - Clément Dirié, Galerie kreo

Comments

"In collaboration with a workshop established in Frankfurt in 1829 - Glasbau Hahn, Konstantin Grcic has developed an ingenious collection of glass furniture made from
industrial float glass identical to that used in architecture.
Each piece round table, bookshelves, chair, side table, large table, single and double chests, vertical cabinet is operated by a simple mechanism that not only meets contemporary design’s demand for scaleability but also that truly performs its function. By means of pistons, hinges, cranks and knobs, and through the use of black silicone that allows plates of glass to move whilst highlighting their design, each piece is dynamic and lends itself to human movements and mechanical strength a reminder of the designer’s penchant for the world of automobiles, already manifest in his Champions collection exhibited at Galerie kreo in 2011.
Nonetheless, there is nothing cold, distant or “electronic” about this association of the transparent and the mechanical. Although Man Machine is firmly bedded in the industrial design approach characteristic of Konstantin Grcic’s work, here the glass like Kraftwerk’s electronic music takes on sensual and porous notes. Yet, in 2008, with his Karbon chaise-longue, the designer was examining the tension between reality and appearance: for this piece between the lightness of a design and the sturdiness of a structure."
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Table M
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Table M, folded
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Vitrine
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Shelf
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"Exploring the relationships between exterior and interior, fragile appearance and real practicality, potentialities and tautology, human mechanics and the power of air, the Man Machine collection, stripped of all artifice, also seems to toy with the current questionings of design, elaborating on the issues addressed by the Light & Space movement in 1960s America and Larry Bell, in particular or those raised by Jeff Koons with his cabinets in the early 1980s.
Once again, Konstantin Grcic pushes back the boundaries of the domestic stage by creating a radical collection poised between hi-fi aesthetics, a fascination with transparency and a reflection on his own practice."
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Table XL
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Side table
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Chest L
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Chest S
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Chair
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Here is what Konstantin Grcic says about 'Man Machine' furniture collection:

"MAN MACHINE is a collection of furniture pieces developed for Galerie kreo in Paris.
Like the CHAMPIONS tables, my previous project for kreo, I based the entire collection on one material (and technique): glass. Glass is surely not the most obvious material for making furniture. Apart from being cold and heavy, there is a prevalent stigma about its fragility. However, if you think about it, glass is one of the most commonly used building materials in contemporary architecture.

The idea of MAN MACHINE (named after Kraftwerk´s 1978 album) started to formulate when we began introducing moving elements to the glass furniture. The movement is achieved by using industrial gas pistons, a kind of magic muscle. The performance and leverage of each gas piston is customized according to the exact movement required.

On the CHAISE (chair), the piston is used to alter the position of the backrest, on the round TABLE_M the piston makes the table top fold away. The large TABLE_XL has four synchronized telescopic pistons which allow the table top to be cranked up or down. The big boxes (CRATE) have pistons lifting the glass lid, the book SHELF incorporates pistons pushing wooden blocks like sprung bookends. All pieces are made out of tempered glass jointed together with silicone glue." - Konstantin Grcic

The MAN MACHINE collection is produced in a limited edition of 8 pieces each.
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Konstantin Grcic (*1965) was trained as a cabinet maker at The John Makepeace School (Dorset, England) before studying Design at the Royal College of Art in London. Since setting up his own practice Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design (KGID) in Munich in 1991, he has developed furniture, products and lighting for some of the leading companies in the design field.

He has worked with Galerie kreo since 2004. He is the winner of two Compasso d’Oro awards, one for his
Mayday lamp (Flos) in 2001 and another for his Myto chair (Plank) in 2011. The Vitra Design Museum is to stage a retrospective exhibition of his work, entitled Panorama, from March to September 2014, which will travel to the Z33 in Belgium from February to
March 2015

'Konstantin Grcic defines function in human terms, combining formal strictness with considerable mental acuity and humour. Each of his products is characterized by a careful research into the history of design and architecture and his passion for technology and materials. Known for pared-down pieces, Grcic is often called a minimalist but the designer himself prefers to speak of simplicity.' - from Konstantin Grcic website
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