HALF A MILLION CHAIRS
Berlin / 2007 - 2010
Half a million chairs took two and a half years to draw, on and off, onto the walls and ceilings of Gallery Wallywoods at the Culture Centre in Weissensee in Berlin. The Guinness Book of Records couldn't accept the application for most chairs drawn on the walls and ceilings of an interior space because, apart from a few "biggest" and "longest" entries, art is too abstract a subject to break records in. Not that setting records was the motivation behind transforming the space into what it became. As a mural painter my pet theme had been big chairs since 1999 and I doodled chairs everywhere.
The theme was actually chairs and people. I did most of the chairs, artist Marie-Cecile Lutta drew most of the figures, while Jack drew a lot of the tiny chairs in the windowless third room. Friends and visitors of all ages joined in.
Not long into our stay it was clear that the building was being abandoned by the local council and that we would have to go to. Finally evicted in 2010, I was assured that the walls would be looked after, at least until the building gets sold to developers (and probably torn down). But to this date (2016) the building is still empty, unused, falling apart. Disgraceful. But I'm glad the chairs are still there.
Film by Forum Der Nichtarbeit on the night before we moved out. (Here's another similar film.)
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