PLATFORM
Exhibition
1968 and the Consequences. Sitting in Concrete
KlausEngelhorn Depot
7.10.2008, 6pm
The famous Sacco by the Italian designers Gatti, Paolini and Teodoro is among the most well-known design objects of the 20th century. As a light, mobile and affordable piece of furniture in mostly poppy colours, in 1968 the beanbag embodied the spirit of the time. It rebelled against conservative behaviour patterns and gave its users a feeling of freedom that was connected to the student protests and social change.
Forty years later the protest generation from 1968, who had advocated mobility, spontaneity and flexibility, are now themselves sitting in the directors' chairs of concerns, parties and institutions – where they now cement the capitalist market economy themselves. The Sacco di cemento by Bartolomeo Vanzetti gives expression to this solidification: concrete is the material that once became a socially-critical catchword of the 68 generation and still today is seen as a metaphor for obstinacy, inactivity and conformity.