A Chair and You

Chairs

This autumn, Kunsthal Rotterdam presents an exhibition featuring one of the world’s most important private collections of chairs, assembled by collector Thierry Barbier-Mueller (1960–2023).

Robert Wilson

For the exhibition A Chair and You, the late American director, scenographer, and artist Robert Wilson (1941–2025) selected 150 chairs by 124 designers from the collection of Thierry Barbier-Mueller. Inspired by the performing arts, Wilson used light, sound, and scenery to create four thematic worlds—ranging from a Jackson Pollock-inspired room with colorful forms and wondrous materials to a space that breathes calm and order, with clean lines, and soft tones evoking modernist architecture. This total installation highlights the meaningful, almost theatrical power of the objects and lets the chairs speak without words.

The Thierry Barbier-Mueller collection

From the late 1990s, Geneva-based entrepreneur and collector Thierry Barbier-Mueller (1960–2023) brought together chairs with a sculptural character that goes far beyond traditional ideas of chair design. Built through spontaneous discoveries and personal encounters, the collection grew to more than 650 works spanning the 1960s to the present day. It brings together original seating by artists, designers and architects including Ettore Sottsass, Ron Arad, Martino Gamper, Maarten Baas, Donald Judd, Niki de Saint Phalle, Lawrence Weiner and Franz West.

Collaboration

The exhibition A Chair and You is realised in close collaboration with Fondation Musée Barbier-Mueller, Geneva, and mudac — Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts, Lausanne.