Out of investigating architecture, communication, and social behaviour in the urban space, a series of bench designs was born under the common title Modified Social Benches. The bench designs borrow their basic form from normal park or garden benches seen everywhere, but are altered in various degrees to make the act of sitting on them a conscious physical endeavour. With their modification, the spaces they inhabit become active rather than places of rest and solitude; they foster exchange between the users and the passers-by, thus lending the work a social quality. Due to their alteration, the benches end up somewhere between a dysfunctional object and a functional piece of furniture and thus point out the contradiction between artwork and functional object.

Year: 2008
Materials: Powder-coated galvanised steel
Dimensions variable

Exhibitions:
Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, D, 2008
backyardoutdoorsculptureseries#5, Johann König Gallery, Berlin, D, 2010
Beaufort04, Den Haan, B, 2012