Cross Cultural Chairs

From the intuition of using the everyday object of the chair as a key to explore different cultures, to the final set of eight exemplars designed and produced in eight different countries with local designers and artisans, Cross Cultural Chairs sits at the border between research and design, anthropology and sociology, past and future, local traditions and the globalized world. The book is structured as a first person report in which Matteo Guarnaccia tells of his encounters with eight of the most populated countries in the world (Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Indonesia, China, India, Russia, Nigeria), exploring through chairs and the act of sitting the history, power relations, and socio-cultural habits of the communities he visits. The eight chairs presented at the end of the book reflect these personal encounters with the collective identities of the eight countries, but also the perspectives of locals who were involved in the research, design, and production process. The text, photos, and images of the chairs’ series beautifully recreate the intimacy of the experience of the author’s encounters for the readers, inviting them to sit onto each chair and look at the world from a different perspective.

— Chiara Dorbolò, Curator of the Architecture Book Fair 2021