CROSS CULTURE CHAIRS, A GLOBAL SURVEY ON THE DESIGN AND CULTURE OF SITTING
Matteo Guarnaccia is a Sicillian designer based in Barcelona, who interweaves design and anthropology to consider culture during the design process. For CrossCultureChairs, Guarnaccia collaborated with eight local design studios and artisans in eight different countries to discover the culture of sitting.
The habit of sitting, the act of gathering, and the making of a chair all differ per country and depend on cultural context, available resources, and inherited knowledge. Where in one country one prefers to sit on a wooden chair, in another one may prefer to sit on the knees, on the ground, or on a cushion. The cultural context of furniture differs highly across the globe. And yet, if we look at what is available in stores worldwide, it sometimes seems as if we are all supposed to sit on the same monotonous, mass-produced chair. How can we better understand the cultural context of furniture around the globe with respect towards its culture- and site-specificity?
CrossCulturalChairs is a research project and book about social and cultural differences analyzed through chairs and ways of sitting. Matteo Guarnaccia briefly describes his journey “surfing the sensation of discovery”.
THE CCC RUSSIA CHAIR WAS DESIGNED BY MATTEO GUARNACCIA AND HARRY NURIEV FROM CROSBY STUDIOS IN MOSCOW
MATERIA: What was the catalyst for this research?
Matteo Guarnaccia: The project follows two parallel lines that share something in common. Focusing on design and its process, CCC also explores the context of design with a more anthropological approach. During the research phase, I have learned in the first person that traveling and designing shares curiosity, the catalyst of the chemical reactions of life.
MATERIA: How does your own cultural background impact this work?
MG: I am a white, heterosexual man, born in Europe. This automatically places me in a cultural background strong enough to compromise my perception of my surroundings. This project, together with several other travel experiences, helped me to question my cultural background, considering other voices and points of view. In Europe it is easy to be part of a globalized, fast consuming society, where we wear the same clothes and listen to the same music. I was curious to understand how we sit around the world.
THE CCC CHINA CHAIR WAS DESIGNED BY MATTEO GUARNACCIA AND BENWU STUDIO WITH M.X.N AND KVRADAT TEXTILES IN SHANGHAI
MATERIA: What did the selected chairs say about each culture?
MG: It’s hard to summarize 8 months of work in a few paragraphs. Each culture is different from the other, of course sharing things in common, but the briefing was to try to extract the specific essence of the culture analyzed. There has been some process that has found me more personally attached, but each one of them taught me something.
MATERIA: What was something you did not expect during your experience with this project?
MG: The project itself is a series of experiences that I could not expect. From the relationship with the designer to the religious context to communications with the artisans or simply looking for yoghurt in a supermarket. I could not plan certain things and I think that curiosity pushed me all the way through this experience. I did not know that Chinese factories close down for a month for the Chinese New Year or that wood in Lagos needs to dry 6 months in advance because it is kept floating in the water. For how much I tried to plan this project, I enjoyed surfing this sensation of discovery.
THE CCC INDONESIA CHAIR WAS DESIGNED BY MATTEO GUARNACCIA AND STUDIOHIJI WITH JUNO HOME IN JAKARTA
CrossCultureChairs is a research project and book published by Onomatopee 193
Available for purchase here
