Bogomir Doringer

Illegal chair

23 Dec 2005
23 Dec 2005

Through this project, Bogomir Doringer raised questions on the issue of value, success, brand, identity, gossip, pop-culture, advertisement, local mentality, heroes/anti-heroes…

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Copy of a Resident card doccument from Bogomir Doringer - project Illegal chair by Bogomir Doringer

Doringer as Serbian immigrant and art student in the Netherlands, (mis)used the opportunity while working in the Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum to collect (preserve?) thrown chairs designed by Studio Acconci for retrospective exhibition of Vito Acconci’s work, which ended in January 2006. Chairs were taken from a container belonging to the Museum with the intention to restore them and present in The Mobile Studios in Belgrade, Serbia. Since the purpose of The Mobile Studios is to communicate with mainstream and population at large, the next phase of this artwork was to introduce it to the public through a variety of mostly fabricated articles in gossip magazines which degraded the image of the young artist. A week before the all-day presentation at the main square in Belgrade, Doringer has put posters all around the city centre made to look like arrest warrants for both the chairs and himself. The citizens were invited to contact the artist if happen to have any information on the “stolen” artwork, or the artist.

On the 13th of April 2006 in one of the units of the Mobile Studios (LIVE Studio) the artist installed the photo studio with redesigned chairs on display and a voting box. The people passing by were invited to enter the studio, take a snap-shot while sitting in “incriminated” chair and vote on the legality of the artwork. Moreover, celebrities involved in issues on legality/illegality (journalists, pop-stars, NGO people, actors, government representatives etc.) disrespectful of their ideological background were also invited to give their vote. The voting results and portraits of the participants are the final result of this project.

In the TALK Studio there was a discussion on using mass media to promote art, which was transmitted over the loudspeakers. The moderator was Aleksandar Macasev, participants included Jelena Djurovic-Mutaovic and Vladimir Tupanjac.