Konstantin Grcic has been working for many years with the Kreo Gallery in Paris, where he presents individual and collector’s pieces that he himself sees as experimental fields. Until 26 August, lamps and tables can be seen under the title “Transformers”. Once again, Grcic reveals his never-ending fascination for a tangible industrial aesthetic. The title is a recognisable reference to a series of films featuring intergalactic robots that can transform into various creatures or objects.
With playful seriousness, Grcic attacks the unity of the object and gives free rein to the combinatorics of modular elements. The objects consist of parts of a prefabricated extruded aluminium profile with a square cross-section, which has a double row of holes on each of its four sides. The profile was developed as a measuring template for the automotive industry, where it is designed to ensure millimetre precision throughout the car production process. “The system,” says Grcic, “allows me to construct different furniture typologies in an extremely simple, precise and powerful way”.
The result is a collection of nine elements: Luminaires made of black aluminium (four pendants and three floor lamps) and two tables made of silver-coloured material. The lamps in particular have an idiosyncratic graphic effect. The chandelier could have come from a science fiction film, with the massive chains and hooks that adorn it demonstrating material stability and intangibility. “I always welcome the future, but science fiction tends to distort the possible through nostalgic depictions or simplistic clichés. In contrast, I am interested in a future that is almost invisible but already changing the behaviour of the present,” says Grcic. In an interview with designboom, the designer explained in detail how the project came to life, what attracted him to make something different out of measuring devices and why he expects very different reactions from the public.
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