The Uncomfortable Dinner for Two @first come first served
I don’t know why, but for some reason, most of The Uncomfortable collection revolves around objects for eating and drinking. The only thing missing from the collection was an uncomfortable table. Many years ago, I had this idea that made me laugh out loud:
what if the forks and knives on a table were connected?
Back then I only produced 3D images for The Uncomfortable collection and prototyping was out of the question budget-wise. And since this kind of idea was better understood in person with some interaction, I left it on the back burner….
When I was invited by Anna, Christina and Ifigeneia to participate in a group exhibition called “First come first served” revolving dining and serving, it was the first thing that came to mind! So I made this interactive installation called “Uncomfortable Dinner for Two” and the fancy text I wrote for the catalogue of the exhibition is this:
The “Uncomfortable Dinner for Two” focuses in the relationships of the users during a dinner and uses the table and eating tools to create links. The independence of movements, a basic condition of a dinner, is cancelled. The users are forced to communicate and dinner becomes a game for two. Will they synchronize to achieve their common goal or will they both starve?
Or put in a simple manner:
Your fork is attached to the fork opposite and same goes for the knives. The chain is large enough to let only one person lift the fork to the mouth. Will you let your friend eat or not?
The table was designed by me and consists of two crossing legs and the top surface. The concept behind this design was to put an emphasis on the connecting chains and to have a flat-pack style assembly for quick setup. The material is pressed formica on plywood.
The exhibition was co-hosted by T.A.F. / the art foundation, a cultural space located in an amazing building downtown Athens – a unique example of folk architecture with a typical Athenian inner yard – and It’s all, oh so souvenir to me, a platform for Greek designers that now also operates as a shop on the T.A.F. premises and it’s aim is to redefine the Greek souvenir as a highly aesthetic object.
The exhibition brought together different perspectives and approaches by artists, product and fashion designers, as well as professionals in the catering field, in the serving process, artistically addressing a custom with many social and cultural extensions, in which everything should be “in its place”. I was very happy to be amongst artists and designers that I admire and discover the work of many others.
Needless to say we had a blast during the opening, as you can see in the photos! Seeing people using the table and using it myself, I observed that the table highlighted each person’s personality. Dominant people were pulling hard!
Participants: Costas Bissas, Cream, Olga Evangelidou, Angelos Frentzos, Yiannis Ghikas, Katerina Kamprani, Yorgos Karras (om* in a box), Stathis Kolonias, Eva Marathaki, MeToo, Luciana Monaco (Projeto Garagem) + 80e8, Studiolav, Dimosthenis Serketzis, Sustainable Food Movement in Greece (feat. Artemis Tsipi, Harris Tzannis & Alexandros Charalampopoulos in collaboration with PRAXIS), 3Some Ceramics, The Three Dots, Zorbas is Missing (Vassilis Georgiou, Yiannis Karlopoulos)
Curated by: Christina Dilari, Ifigeneia Papamikroulea, Anna Polydorou