TEN: BEYOND THE BEETLE
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEATING
By Martin Groch
“‘A Brief History of Seating’ is a series of illustrations based on a specific genre of drawings: a designer’s sketches. Yes, those. One possibly can recall all that wild sketching by Ettore Sottsass, those bizarre evolutionary forms by Philippe Starck, or those somehow popular yet fake sketches whose existence is only instrumental to the mythology of the product.”
‘A Brief History of Seating’ doesn’t have a reliable storyteller. We are wandering through history without the main character. And we see it through the gaze of someone omnipresent and obsessed with a form. We are glimpsing inventions to slip and let it be with a turn of the page. The human species never really appears – if we don’t count sculptures as humans. Dogs and cats occupy space between our subjects. Some forms along the way imitate functionality, while others don‘t bother to do so at all. Another page and reminiscence of the Italian radical design shine throughout. In the end, we can see our chair not taking up all the attention. Yet the sun is there, and the dog accompanying it looks pleased.”
– Martin Groch
MARTIN GROCH
GRAPHIC DESIGNER AND ILLUSTRATOR, BRUSSELS
Based in Brussels, Slovakian designer Martin Groch has a natural talent for combining type, image, and abstract forms. His expansive portfolio showcases beautifully crafted illustrations, exhibition identities, and experiments with deconstructed drawings, as well as vintage-inspired cartoons.
“In Martin Groch’s surreal investigation, the young Beetle Chair insinuates itself into a world governed by historians and curators, bringing with it global commercial success. It makes a space for itself in the collective imagination, where the cultural world and media validate the transition of a design from simple success to popular object, to timeless icon. Groch’s expressionism tells a heroic tale that is no longer a fantasy.”
- Marco Sammicheli, curator, TEN: Beyond the Beetle
TEN: BEYOND THE BEETLE
GUBI SALONE 2023’s landmark exhibition showcases 10 creative responses to a modern design icon.