One of the biggest private collections of chairs made by architects, designers, and artists is on display at mudac. This collection, which was started in the 1990s, is full of unique seating designs, and its owner, Thierry Barbier-Mueller, has now decided to open it up for public viewing after more than 20 years of private love.
The renowned American director Robert Wilson was given the task of presenting this expansive and varied corpus, which included 211 seats and 168 designers. Wilson came up with a set design that was inspired by the canon of performing arts. The inventive research and formal designs, the use and assembly of experimental materials, the interaction of size and function, and the abundance of the collection all contribute to the ensemble’s exceptional quality, which goes well beyond the typical typology of chairs. Wilson enhances the semantic ability of the item to convey stories without words in order to reveal and honor each of them. This display is stunning and immersive, resembling a lengthy four-act opera. By presenting visitors with this distinctive item, light and music enrich the dramaturgy of the story.
A kind of musicality with limitless potential, the chair represents conflict between aesthetics and utility at the nexus of art and sculpture. As Thierry Barbier- Mueller met and learned about new designers, his collection of purchases developed organically until it included over 650 items from the 1960s to the present. The collection, which is composed of around two-thirds unique pieces, prototypes, or works from limited editions, illustrates this interest in unusual items, beyond the conventional industrial design niches. Barbier-Mueller is more interested in anything that stands out as unusual and novel in the area than in compiling an entire, scholarly corpus on the modern history of the chair.Young, lesser-known designers of many countries are included in this collection, along with globally famous designers.
This collection of unique items that showcases the evolution of modern design is on display in the exhibition A Chair and You.
The Spirit of the Chair is a catalog that details the whole chair collection and is sold at the museum bookshop. Thierry Barbier-Chair Mueller’s Collection, Lars Mueller Publishers GmbH, October 2022, 384 pages, 927 images, 22 x 30 cm, CHF 65.
The scenography was given to renowned American filmmaker and artist Robert Wilson in order to emphasize the sculptural nature of the Thierry Barbier-Mueller collection’s components. With this excellent set design, the audience is transported into fantastical settings where the chairs are given centre stage. Discovering the chair and its various variations—an iconic piece of design—can be done in a special way with the help of sound, light, and sets.
Wilson is a leading theatrical and visual artist who was born in Waco, Texas. His theatrical productions ingeniously combine many different creative media, such as dance, movement, lighting, sculpture, music, and text. His productions have won the praise of audiences and reviewers all around the world for his artistically stunning and emotionally stirring imagery.
Wilson founded the New York-based performance collective The Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds in the middle of the 1960s after receiving education at the University of Texas and Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute. He then created his first iconic works, such as Deafman Glance (1970) and A Letter for Queen Victoria (1974-1975). He co-wrote the influential opera Einstein on the Beach with Philip Glass (1976).
Many authors and musicians, including Heiner Müller, Tom Waits, Susan Sontag, Laurie Anderson, William Burroughs, Lou Reed, Jessye Norman, and Anna Calvi, have collaborated with Wilson on his artistic works. He also contributed to masterpieces including Krapp’s Last Tape by Beckett, Threepenny Opera by Brecht and Weill, Pelléas et Melisande by Debussy, Faust by Goethe, the Odyssey by Homer, Jean de la Fontaine’s Fables, Madama Butterfly by Puccini, La Traviata by Verdi, and Oedipus by Sophocles.
Drawings, paintings, and sculptures by Wilson have been displayed in countless solo and group exhibitions across the world and are included in several private and public collections.
Wilson has received multiple honors for his outstanding work, including a Pulitzer Prize nomination, two Premio Ubu prizes, the Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion, and an Olivier Award. He has eight Honorary Doctorate degrees and was elected to the German Academy of the Arts as well as the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was given the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit by Germany, the Order of Arts and Letters by France in 2003, and the Legion of Honor in 2014. (2014). The Watermill Centre, a testing ground for the arts in Water Mill, New York, was founded by Wilson, who also serves as its artistic director.