BKF. Cinegética y Modernidad: Domènec

Overview

Domènec presents another product of the so called Modern project. It is the iconic BKF chair, an aesthetic and functional proposal also known as "Butterfly chair" because of its morphological resemblance to the insect.

From a set of photographs, site-specific installations and structures / sculptures, Domènec reflects on the so-called crisis of Modernity through a critical review in order to give these utopian projects visibility and to discover what remains of their original proposals. With all this, the artist questions urgent topics such as the public and the social; memory management; and political mechanisms of our society. For this exhibition in ADN Platform, Domènec presents another product of the so called Modern project. It is the iconic BKF chair, an aesthetic and functional proposal also known as "Butterfly chair" because of its morphological resemblance to the insect. The prototype consists of two symmetrical tubular pieces welded and covered by a piece of leather. A simple and soft design that also evokes the natural in its curved and sinuous forms. A morphological object that acquires an almost sculptural, even architectural, value while fulfilling its main function, that of the seat. Created between 1938 and 1939, the BKF was designed by exiled Catalan architect Antoni Bonet Castellana and the Argentines Juan Kurchan and Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy.

 

They met each other while working at le Corbusier's office in 1936. Two years later the three architects created the Austral group (1938 – 1941). In this particular case, the figure of Antoni Bonet stands out as the architectural rationalism of the GATPAC (Group of Catalan Architects and Technicians for the Progress of Contemporary architecture) together with the surrealist poetics of the ADLAN (Friends of New Art) conformed, within the framework of the II Republic in Spain, the perfect field for the development of the group. It was, in fact, in this context that they produced this peculiar chair.

Installation Views