The Final Bid
30.10.2022 – 26.02.2023
Draiflessen Collection
Georgstr. 18
49497 Mettingen, Germany
Opening Hours
Wednesday – Sunday
from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The first Thursday every month
from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Closed Monday and Tuesday
The Final Bid questions the ease in which we can purchase new objects whilst perfectly useable objects lie unwanted in people’s homes. Using the Draiflessen Collection as a hub for an on-lines auction, chairs will be bought and sold, creating constantly evolving meanwhile sculptures. The installation, conflating the commercial with the cultural, will encourage people to circulate objects they no longer need, promoting an economy of reuse.
The chairs rest on the ground until the opening of the exhibition. Once open, the sale begins, and the chair’s height rise as the value of the bids increase.
The sculptural presence within the gallery only represents an interruption in the re-use journey. These chairs have existed in people’s houses and they will find a new home somewhere else; the aesthetic moment is created by harnessing the byproduct of this process. In effect, the exhibition is created by borrowing assets from the community in exchange for offering a service.
The Final Bid functions in the town, in the museum and on-line. It requires people to participate in the process. Those engaging on-line will be presented with webcam view of the gallery space. As they bid, they will be able to see the height of their chosen object change accordingly. Participants can also bid in the gallery, to experience the re-configuration of the objects in real space and in real time.
The Final Bid, plays with the idea of collecting artifacts and the value they gain when placed within a museum context. Whilst some of the chairs may have significant sentimental value, they generally have a low commercial value. Following the traditions of the ready-made, they are, for a moment, displaced from their functional use, becoming a sculpture to be viewed rather than furniture to be sat on. However, they will return to their former use once purchased, as if Duchamp’s urinal was to be fitted back into a public lavatory.