A philosophical journey into the world of chairs: conversations with design icons about aesthetics and functionality
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Through interviews with theorists and leading practitioners, the documentary reveals how this seemingly simple object embodies questions of existence, function, and beauty.
From reflections on the nature of reality to the creative processes of designers shaping our everyday environment, the film offers a dialogue between thought and form — showing how the chair continues to define the way we live, work, and dream.
The film premiered in June at Beat Film Festival.
Festivals
Beat Film, Russia — June, 2025
Felix, Italy — November 2025
CineOff, Italy — November 2025
Beat Film, Russia — November 2025
Participants
Niels Gammelgaard
Kengo Kuma
Kohtaro Mori
Barnaba Fornasetti
Harry Nuriev
Elio Franzini
Andrea Mocellin
Oleg Paschenko
Damien Anger
Alexandra Batten and Daniel Kamp
Luca Poncellini
Margherita Pellino
Luca Lo Pinto
Natasha Klimchuk
is a film director, and co-founder of the Bang! Bang! Studio and Lunatum magazine. She works at the intersection of design, visual culture, and philosophy. Director of documentary films exploring design and visual culture. Based in Milan.
Previous films:
Documentary about Russian aesthetic
Nominated at Esto Es Para Esto and the International Documentary & Short Film Festival of Kerala
Documentary about Russian identity
Jury Diploma at the Premio Felix Festival (Milan) / Nominated at El Gouna Film Festival, Sputnik Over Poland, On Art Film Festival, and LuxFilmFest
A chair is not just an object. It supports the body, holds it in place, and tells stories — about time, society, and language. It brings together function and meaning, idea and matter, utility and expression. It can be comfortable or awkward, modest or provocative — but it always speaks.
We showcase some of the most iconic chairs ever created, such as
Eames Lounge Chair
Barcelona Chair
Egg Chair
Wassily Chair
Panton Chair
Louis Ghost Chair
Thonet Bentwood Chair
Bertoia Diamond Chair
Tulip Arm Chair
LC4 Chaise Lounge
Many philosophers addressed the chair in their works, and the chair metaphor is commonly employed to illustrate various concepts
These range from the ontological nature of objects and how humans interact with the world, to the creation of values by the human mind and even the formation of the world itself. We will explore these ideas in depth.
Martin Heidegger
Heidegger's central argument is that the chair, as a work of art, reveals the "truth" of the world in two ways
1
It reveals the "truth" of the world as a set of equipment, or things that are used to accomplish a task
2
It reveals the "truth" of the world as a place where human beings dwell
Heidegger believes that the chair, as a work of art, reveals the way that things are in the world and the way that human beings interact with the world
Jean-Paul Sartre in his Being and Nothingness uses the example of a chair to illustrate the idea of "being-for-itself" and "being-in-itself" where the chair is an object that exists independently of the subject, while the subject exist independently of the chair.
Jean-Paul Sartre
In The Republic, Plato uses the metaphor of a "divine craftsman" or demiurge to make the world
He compares this craftsman to a carpenter, who makes a bed or a chair which are a copy of eternal forms in the world of forms
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche uses the metaphor of a "chair" in Thus Spoke Zarathustra,
Where he talks about how the human mind creates values and how these values are like chairs that we sit on. He argues that these values are created by the human mind and are not inherent in the world
Join us on this journey as we unravel the fascinating world of chairs!
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Selected Articles
Two ChairsProject type