Ready-Made-Design as a complete set: The aptly named “Aufwachraum” („Wake Up Room“) by german artist and design professor Florian Borkenhagen. It’s the interpretation of a chaise longue with reading light, created and curated from an old mobile stretcher, newly laquered und upholstered in lilac ‘Kvadrat’ fabric. The lamp is a classic hospital drip holder, holding a working lantern with orange glass panels.
The set seems to be a colourful comment to uncertain times, first shown in 2019 in Borkenhagen’s Soloshow „Hot Dock“ in Hamburg. When the design objects were shown in spring 2020 at Galerie antibeige, Frankfurt, the first coronavirus lockdown had just been imposed. And suddenly it seemed like an optimistic outlook to a world afterwards.
Prof. Florian Borkenhagen’s works deliberately operate at the interface between design and art. His unique furniture and interior designs often have a sculptural character – but he also developed pieces for german furniture company ‘Tecta’. Borkenhagen has exhibited in numerous galleries and museums in Europe and the USA, including at documenta 8 in Kassel. In the 1990s, he founded the interdisciplinary Laboratorio Como, Italy, followed by working in Paris and Hamburg, where he still teaches design students today.
photo: antibeige, peter fehrentz
