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In the Petirama of La Friche la Belle de Mai

Exhibition and Performance:
31 MAY – 2 JUNE 2019

During their two weeks residency at the Goethe-Institut Marseille and as part of the Bauhaus’ 100th anniversary celebrations, the trio of designers Borie, Lee and von Roeder will meet the Bauhaus and Marseille in the context of material reality – the Bauhaus, emblematic symbol of modern design, and Marseille, a city where, throughout its history, various ethnographic cultures have been fused.

During seven days of preparation, they collect about 50 objects from citizens of Marseille through an open call and then transform them together with the citizens into fictional Bauhaus artefacts during a three-day performance. The transformation process takes place both visually and aesthetically, but also conceptually. The designers therefore create in advance a catalogue of concepts, shapes, colours and materials from the Bauhaus school and use it as a set of rules and inspiration. During the performance, the results from the workshop will turn into an exhibition of transformed objects – unknown everyday objects and contemporary life that try to resemble famous and emblematic Bauhaus artefacts.

Through this act, they wish to question the influence, impact and importance of emblematic and famous movements of modern design and contrast them with the products of contemporary everyday life that are value to the inhabitants of both cities.

The trio of designers Anais Borie (FR), Aram Lee (KOR) and Ottonie von Roeder (GER) is based in the Netherlands and Germany, working from time to time on speculative, critical and performing projects. Their current projects were « Dream Factory », a performance at Dutch Design Week 2016, and the series « Inside Out » in collaboration with the Zuiderzeemuseum in Enkhuizen and at the Forecast Platform in « Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin » with « Kunstgewerbemuseum », « Museum der Dinge » and « Bröhanmuseum ».

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UNKNOWN OBJECT – For the person who brought this object to the transformation connects a lot of bad memories, mistakes, stress and unclear ownership to this object and wished the object to disappear, to change its identity or become invisible. Inspired by the Bauhaus student Gertrud Arndts masked portraits the object was masked and its identity hidden. The mask covers the buried object and therefore its identity – almost, until you find the hidden peephole.

WATER BOTTLE – Through the water bottle brought that is used individually only by the owner we had a talk about the usage of PET and global access to water. Inspired by the idea of collectivism, that was promoted in early Israel by the Bauhaus architect Arieh Sharon amongst others, we transformed the object into a bottle which could be used by many different family members.

UN AVION EN FEUILLE D’ETAIN- The metal airplane was taken from an exhibition opening and bonded the owner and her boyfriend through the collective act of stealing and doing something forbidden together. Discussing about ownership and collectivism, applied by the Bauhaus and Israeli architect Arieh Sharon, the plane was turned into many small planes that could be spread, shared and their ownership distorted.

HAIRBRUSH – The hairbrush was brought to the transformation by the owner that originally took it from her mother. For her it stands for transmission between two generations. After reflecting about Bauhaus and the idea of modular systems, that students like Alma Siedhoff Busher applied in their practice, we modified the hair brush into modules that became and could still transform into different brushes for several uses, such as toothbrush, hairbrush, shaving brush, paint brush, washing-up brush, bottle brush and many more.

BRA – The participant brought a bra that she used sometimes without ever feeling comfortable in it our being convinced of its functionality. During the workshop, the identity of the object has changed by applying Getrud Arndt creative philosophy to the transformation process. Considered as a pioneer of female self-portraiture, Arndt developed several of her works around the use of masks and costumes, allowing her to change her identity and to created playful reinterpretations of feminine tropes such as the widow, socialite, and a little girl. During the transformation the female object became a small pocket that could hold other things rather than women’s body.

UNE COUPE – The owner got the bowl as part of a ceramic set as a birthday gift from her sister in law who brought it from her holidays in North of Italy. When parts of the set started to crack she felt sad as it seemed something very unique manufactured in a specific region – until she saw the same set again in a shop in Marseille. After discussing local culture versus globalization and craftsmanship versus mass production, we multiplied the bowl by attaching pieces of it to disposable PET bowls – each piece is part of a mass and disposable but each individual holds a specific piece of the original.

CERAMIC SCULPTURE OF BOY -The little ceramic sculpture of a boy was found by the owner on a flea market. The figure misses its head, one arm and one leg. The owner told that she used to have a special kind of affection towards the esthetics of fragmented and atypical bodies. 100 years ago, when the Bauhaus school was founded, handicaps were perceived very differently in society than today and people with disabilities kept hidden from the public. As today we can celebrate diversity and our differences (physically or of other kinds) – symbolized by the monument created underneath and around the boy’s figure, in a similar way new technology, innovation and progress was highlighted through the Bauhaus designs.

BOTTLE FOR NUT OIL -The empty glass bottle used to contain a special nut oil from the region of the birthplace of the owner’s father. Her mother and everyone else in the family used to cook with this oil and until today using, smelling and eating it reconnects her to this region, the local culture and her family. This nut oil and therefore the bottle stand for equality within one community that also Bauhaus architects, such as Arieh Sharon in Israel, tried to create through their buildings and designs. By adding signs that symbolize the owner and her siblings to the bottle we wanted to emphasize this cultural artefact, its history and heritage and the existence of the owner within a bigger community.

DRIED FLOWER – The participant brought a dried flower that she collected from the garden at La Friche. She found it beautiful and wanted to use it for decoration – reminding her of the beauty of nature. After having a discussion about the Bauhaus and the different approaches at the school we decided to turn the principle “form follows function”, that was adapted by the Bauhaus, around and transform the flower acting on “function follows form” – the flower became a shaving brush.

SCARF – This scarf belongs to an artist from the Brazil. Its surface is marked by faint, almost invisible pattern. Passed through the hands of an artist the status of the object is susceptible to shift – the object becoming an artwork only by having been chosen by its owner. The transformation of the scarf was influences by Anni Albers textile experiments, following her weaving techniques – such as floating weft threads – a technique borrowed from ancient Peru – that recall the structure of texts in her pictorial weaves and may even suggest the influence of her teacher Paul Klee.

AFRICAN SPOON -Here an anti-bauhaus example. We decided to create the reverse of what Bauhaus would have done with this object, the cavity of spoon will be filled by an African fabric, the plastic behind will make the spoon useless, impossible to grab it by hand….

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