The Blogazine

There are few contemporary designers that can take on such complex, diverse and challenging tasks as Konstantin Grcic. From über-technological furniture, to small everyday objects, from warm apartment interiors to experiments with unsual materials and production techniques, Grcic constantly re-affirms himself as one of the boldest and bravest contemporary designers. And, in fact, a new exhibition at Galerie Kreo, the hub of uncompromising contemporary design, demonstrates his ability to tackle and examine production processes, materials, systems and finishings in creating objects that are between functionality and appearance, conceptuality and reality of everyday use.

Borrowing its title from the Kraftwerk album, “Man Machine” is an exhibition that explores the duality between a fragile material and sturdy mechanical components that make it both practical and functional, by showcasing a series of glass objects produced in collaboration with a workshop established in Frankfurt in 1829 from industrial float glass identical to that used in architecture.

Each piece exhibited in the show – a round table, bookshelves, a chair, a side table, a large table, single and double chests, a vertical cabinet – is operated by a simple mechanism that not only meets contemporary design’s demand for scaleability but also truly performs its function. By means of pistons, hinges, cranks and knobs, and through the use of black silicone that allows plates of glass to move whilst highlighting their design, each piece is dynamic and lends itself to human movements.

Cold yet sensual, transparent yet somehow elusive and ethereal, structurally and functionally explicit yet, at the same time, delicate and poetic, “Man Machine” appears to be an exploration into the inconsistencies and discordancies of design production, challenging the way we view our material reality, the way our everyday objects are produced, used and, ultimately, understood.

“Man Machine” runs through May 17th 2014 at Galerie Kreo in Paris.

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