At first glance, they look like odd pieces of furniture from the past: the group of works Fragments of their pleasant spaces (in my fashionable version) by Tobias Rehberger.
The titles of the works are helpful and allow situations to develop: "Smoking, talking, drinking--in smoking with his friends"; "Cutting, preparing, without missing anything and being happy about what comes next"; "Smoking, listening, for himself--I care about you because you do". All of these are moments we long for: being satisfied, feeling secure, not planning anything, enjoying the moment.
Rehberger transfigures these states of being at ease into objects, into furniture and thus into art objects. When developing the design he proceeds much like in the industrial sector. His first step was a market analysis: in the mid-nineties he surveyed his friends with respect to their idea of relaxed and meditative spatial constellations. He subsequently designed the furniture in the styles of the period or overdrew current design trends--all of which (there are a total of seven different spatial constellations) were on display at the Galerie Grässlin in Frankfurt am Main.
He renewed the design a further two times--three years later, in 1999, and again another ten years after that, in 2009. In all three cases, the exhibition was called "Fragments of their pleasant spaces (in my fashionable version)". The themes remained the same, yet the design was different: from round forms in loud primary colors and angular forms in black and white to even more minimalist white forms combined with neon colors ten years later. From today's perspective, the works succeed in evoking an atmosphere of days gone by; Rehberger uses this design to capture the zeitgeist.
Viewers take notice of their aesthetic conditioning; a specific color is enough to trigger the memory of a past phase in one's life. Yet the work itself poses the same question: what role do furniture and design play in the creation of a feeling? The question of consumption is also raised in these works: why did I feel well in these colors and forms ten years ago, and why don't I anymore?