In 2003
Promosedia (the international chair fair) decided to
investigate and play part in the active change of young design in the
world.
Besides promoting an international competition for the design of a
chair in wood, now Promosedia realized with Marco Romanelli the idea of
an exhibition by invitation, then called "The future of the present".
Aimed at enhancing the most promising voices of young design. So this
year, helped by 3 famous colleagues, Patricia Urquiola and the Campana
brothers, 6 young people where selected to represent this project.
They come from different countries (brazil, lebanon, USA, switzerland,
italy and England):
THE LOW CHAIR by karen chekerdjian
"Karen Chekerdjian is a refined voice, perhaps the most refined of the
design specificity of the mediterranean basin seen from the other bank.
Lebanese, for some years Milanese by adoption, but then returned to her
country, Karen proposes the bringing up to date and a recovery of a
whole series of behaviours and traditional types from Middle eastern
countries, which otherwise are destined to be read in Europe only as "
folklore ". Not for Karen. Suffice it to look at her beaten trays, her
hanging coat hangers which look like letters of some mysterious
alphabet.
But even that is not enough because the grace and lighness of Karen's
objects could be attributed simply to the possibility of reaching a
lesser known, lesser exploited field, instead, for some considerable
period Karen has been facing very precise conceptual themes at the same
time. Take the wooden chair she designed for this occasion.
Called simply THE LOW CHAIR, she brings up in discussion what the
westerners consider the norms for chairs, offering a lower seat, closer
to the ground. At the same time reminding us that a large part of the
world's inhabitants does not use 45 cm hight chairs, but squats on
heels or sits on cushions or stools." Marco Romanelli
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