Existenzminimum,
2005
Furniture, ink-jet prints on wood, dimensions variable
1,5: installation view warehouse, Amsterdam
2-4: photographs
Existenzminimum came about as a site-specific work for the exhibition
Killing the Angel in the House, held in an empty warehouse in
Amsterdam. In that vast empty space a normal domestic interior was set
up; that is, a plausible arrangement one could consider a kind of model
for a living room. Standing alongside a red brick wall, it contained an
armchair in front of a cupboard with a television, a dining table with
chairs standing on a carpet, a cage for a pet and two closets.
First, this phase was documented. Next, a reduction was imposed on the arrangement, by literally compressing the furniture into a much smaller space. The resulting installation comprised the same furniture; even, in a way, in the same arrangement, yet compressed.
The title of this piece, Existenzminimum, refers to ideas of modernist
architects, who in the 1920s determined a standard for domestic
interiors based on basic human needs.
