The Bench is Yours (II) – Culture Corporation

Design: Claus Bjerre, Ditte Hammerstrøm and Jeremy Walton. (Culture Corporation)
Intervention: Paustain East Copenhagen.

Starting with an archetypal chair form, waste and donated wood is added on to the bench following the archetype of a basic chair, needing legs, seat and back. Anyone can add to the bench with the waste wood. It is a democratic project that cannot be designed in advance. We create the base, there after it is up to the people that use the park to continue where the last person stopped.

From initial experiments in scale models Bench (I). We have now started several benches in public spaces around the city and the experiment continues.

Bench (II) was conducted in the back parking lot and garden of the Factory for Art and design in south Copenhagen. At a shared studio factory for artists and designers. The event open to anyone, but with people and friends from the factory invited resulted. At the event people were paired up and designated piles of wood and tasked at set time intervals to contribute to the bench. This format did influence a lack of of spotinanity in that there was a waiting time, that many used for planning. The bench mainly being made by artists and designers predictably has an innovative approach to what a bench is, but less so predictable was an evident commitment to craftsmanship and details that were worked into the bench. This became more evident later, as this bench was dismantled and transported to be used in an exhibition at Paustian. In the values of impermanence that are in the idea behind the ‘Bench is yours’ interventions, the elements of this bench proved to be unexpectedly durable.

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• _{Materials: Locally donated wood.}
• _{Production / Technique: Local facilitation, Bodging, Intervention.}
• _{Dimensions: Block 50 x 50 x 80 cm}
• _{Dissemination: Paustian, 2003: ‘‘The Bench is Yours II’’. Culture Corporation. Derfor curated by Louise Campbell. Copenhagen}
• _{Relating Projects: Culture Corporation, Bench is yours.}