December 31, 2024
Life in a silver box
Today we have added the latest contributions that have reached us in the last few months to our collection. David Bielander is here with a work that could form a perfect conclusion to our collection with its play on the materiality of corrugated cardboard. It is elaborately made of silver sheet, a trompe-l’œil and a hint that we have long since made ourselves comfortable in the box? There is a snake sitting in it and still room for an apple.
December 24, 2022
‘Cubes full of life’ …
… was the headline of Anna Moldenhauer’s article about the project and an invitation to discover our virtual exhibition, published on December 19, 2022, on Stylepark – Magazine and Platform for Architecture and Design. Thanks for this great response!
‘The range of works is diverse and refers to the challenging time of upheaval in which we are currently living.’
Anna Moldenhauer, Stylepark
March 20, 2022
Box is open.
Finally we have opened the box – on a day when, at least in Germany, many pandemic protection measures are to be dropped. But we are not entering this spring redeemed or liberated …
It took some time with the box. Each and every one of us – you who sent us and us here unpacking – we’ve all been busy during the last two years. Some of us were busy stopping time for a while. Others, for a variety of reasons, have probably had to rotate even more. Sometimes both, everything alternately or mixed up.
To make it short: THANK YOU SO MUCH for your boxes! Your ideas and thoughts, your greetings and photos. Thanks especially for the wonderful pieces and unusual objects.
Yours Dominik & Silke
December 22, 2021
Box is back.
Showing your works for The Living in a Box Collection within December in Berlin was one of the many plans that had to be reconsidered this year. The boxes arrived – we are still waiting for a few with the patience we all need with ourselves and our common situation. Living in a Box will be continued in 2022; we will open boxes and – it looks like – we will have to sit in a big box ourselves again.
Many thanks to all involved and all the best for the coming year! Yours Dominik & Silke
July 20, 2021
VIRIEUDIPETRILLO.COM
BOARDING #25
GODEFROY DE VIRIEU, Paris
Dear Godefroy, like debris washed on to the shore you once presented our work – objet trouvé. Years later this message in a bottle eventually brought us together on a very classy beach. Yours Dominik
July 19, 2021
Letter box.
Summer holidays in a small village in Occitanie in South of France – the same place since over ten years. In front of our house there is a yellow letter box installed. Daily pick-up except Monday – since ever. Is this story over now as there is a official tape wrapped around it? The locker is broken. Will be fixed within the next weeks. Until then the postman will take your letters.
Lived Sustainability!
July 7, 2021
BOARDING #24
JUSTUS THEINERT, Stuttgart
Dear Justus, it’s been a long time since we talked about original packaging: If we don’t throw it away immediately, it always outlives its contents. Yours Silke
July 7, 2021
Living with boxes
Peter Raacke created foldable furniture from coated corrugated cardboard in 1968, here: ‚Otto‘ cardboard armchair, Photographs: Abisag Tüllmann
In: ‘Macht langsam …’ 50 Jahre Peter Raacke Design, Berlin 2004
June 28, 2021
@CARL.AUBOECK.WIEN
BOARDING #23
CARL AUBÖCK V., Wien
INVITED BY CARL AUBÖCK IV.
Dear Carl V., since you have been a child you are an unbelievable sculptural talent, which elicits new things from what is found by chance and also from what is already elaborately crafted. Your attitude reminds me very much of the situationists which influenced me and which gave me orientation in my own youth. I am reminded as well of Carl Auböck II. who developed the iconic tree table from sawmill waste and many objets trouvés, uncommon for the otherwise very decorative viennese scene at this time. Influences of Carl Auböck III. can be felt in the vehemence of the form of your ideas and objects: The disturbing and possibly unsettling emotional rationality of Carl Auböck IV. may act as an impetus and catalyst in your work too. Yours Carl IV.
June 28, 2021
Pet Sematary.
Wien 9th District, Währinger Straße
June 20, 2021
LUDWIG-MENZEL.DE
BOARDING #22
LUDWIG MENZEL, Berlin
Dear Ludwig, you have always known: Unknown life being stirs also in metallic things. Your world is full of it. Yours Silke
June 20, 2021
Boxes with mechanisms – playthings or science?
Around the year 100 AD, Heron of Alexandria designed an automaton: Hercules shoots his arrow at a dragon, triggering a hissing sound. Quoted form Hein Retter: Spielzeug. Weinheim und Basel, 1979
June 14, 2021
ULRIKE-STEINKE.DE
BOARDING #21
ULRIKE STEINKE, München
INVITED BY DAVID BIELANDER & HELEN BRITTON
Dear Ulrike, we are very aware of what kind of wondrous worlds you can create within a set format. Discussions with you about art and life are a great enrichment! Yours David & Helen
June 14, 2021
Neighbourhood boxes: donate or swap!
The ‘Social Period’ non-profit association collects hygiene items for homeless women (socialperiod.org). And the ‘Tauschbox’ box offers ‘blind dates with books’.
Berlin-Pankow, Janusz-Korczak-Bibliothek / Berlin-Weißensee, Gäblerstraße
June 10, 2021
THECONSTITUTE.ORG
BOARDING #20
CHRISTIAN ZÖLLNER, Dresden
Dear Christian, you always come up with something. Challenge: Fits in here. No pixels, no bytes … but actually why not? Yours Silke
June 10, 2021
Great colour. And a root of real industrial design
Hard to believe: this wooden box – decorated with notch cut and varnished – was designed by Rudi Högner, the later doyen of technical design in the GDR and founder of a basic course for designers and engineers. Högner, a subtle esthete, made this 34.5 cm box around 1926 as a student of Theodor Artur Winde at the Academy of Applied Arts in Dresden.
A must-see in the permanent exhibition of the Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden, Schloss Pillnitz! Photo: H.-P. Klut, © SKD
June 7, 2021
WERKSTAETTE-CARLAUBOECK.BLOGSPOT.COM
BOARDING #19
CARL AUBÖCK, Wien
Dear Carl, I always could convince you of cordially welcoming me in your workshop at 7th district. Our 4th encounter opens a new dimension. Yours Dominik
June 7, 2021
Box in a suitcase, 1935.
‘Everything important that I have done can be put into a little suitcase.’
Marcel Duchamp
In the late 1930s, Marcel Duchamp struck upon the idea of presenting a history of his best works in a small, portable box. From this idea came the ‘Boîte-en-valise’ (Box in a suitcase), a series of 300 boxes filled with reproductions of his works. The boxes ‘unpack’ in such a way that some sections slide out, with other folders and black-mounted prints inside. The case is reminiscent of a travelling salesman’s display case, containing a selection of his pre-1935 work like a portable museum, made for his move to New York in 1942.
Each box features a different, hand-coloured ‘original’ label fixed to the inside of the lid. For Duchamp there was no clear distinction between the original and the reproduction, a concept cleverly embodied here. This collection of multiples offers numerous starting points for dialogue on Duchamp, art history, and the nature of museums and exhibitions.
WATCH VIDEO > THE UNBOXING OF ‘LA BOÎTE-EN-VALISE’, 1935 – 42
Thank you again to Steffen & Catharina for the link to wonderful Monsieur Rrose Sélavy!
June 2, 2021
KATLEENARTHEN.COM
BOARDING #18
KATLEEN ARTHEN, Berlin
Dear Katleen, what kind of space do you see in a cubic decimeter and how does it speak to you? Or rather, how do you deal with it? Yours Silke
June 2, 2021
CP-1 box: a statement against a lie
‘Design is a fashionable profession. This lie must also burst.
In the summer of 1968, an international team of design students (led by Yrjö Sotamaa, Zoltan Popovic, Barbro Kulvik-Siltavuori and Jorma Vennola) collaborated with me on a small island to design, create and build a foldable, portable room for spastic paralyzed children. Included were toys, exercise equipment and much more. We […] had learned […] that there was little or no equipment specifically for spastic paralyzed children, and that some toys […] were inhumane and barbaric. […]
In 12 hours we developed a cube of 2 m side length, which could be taken apart in the middle. Thus, both parts could be easily moved from clinic to clinic and carried through doors. When the cube is placed in the hall or outdoors, it provides a playground 2 m high, and the equipment occupies a space of 16 square meters. It is brightly colored, and children can slide, climb, crawl and play with many toys. It is easy to build and cheap. We made the prototype in 30 hours teamwork and tested it with children. We called it CP-1.’
Victor Papanek in: The Papanek Concept. Design for an Environment of Survival, Munich 1972
June 1, 2021
LADPSTUDIO.EU
BOARDING #17
JEANNETTE ALTHERR, Barcelona
INVITED BY STEFFEN KAZ & CATHARINA LORENZ
Dear Jeannette, longing way back into the past, we always had wonderful inspiring discussions. Inspiration and senseful exchange are more needed then ever and the project ‘Living in a Box’ seems a great platform to continue our discourse. We are really happy to have you on board. Yours Catharina & Steffen
June 1, 2021
Living in a luxury box.
Paragon Apartments, Graft Architects
Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, Danziger Straße
Single room studio apartment, 26.85 sqm + 8.37 terrace: EUR 1’100.00
The official Berlin average rent is EUR 6.79/sqm.
May 31, 2021
STUDIOWUDESIGN.COM
BOARDING #16
YI MENG WU, Berlin
INVITED BY HAIYUE TAO & XINYU WENG
Dear Yi Meng, 你既是德国的，也是中国的，就如介于多米尼克和我们中间的一种身份状态。你一定有很酷的想法。Yours Haiyue & Xinyu
* (you are both german and chinese, kinda in the middle between Dominik and us in terms of identity. You must have some cool ideas.)
May 31, 2021
Prime delivery – standard disposal.
Berlin-Mitte, Max-Beer-Straße
May 28, 2021
CHUPFRIEMERT.DE
BOARDING #15
CHUP FRIEMERT, Hamburg / Süderstapel
Dear Chup, your phrase ‘spiritual in design that which is made by hand’ remains relevant – even in front of a screen: What would our eyes be without the doing and feeling of hands? Yours Silke
May 28, 2021
Andy’s stuff.
From the early 1970s, until his death in 1987, Andy Warhol created 610 ‘Time Capsules’, that were almost completely unknown until his death. Warhol selected items from the daily flood of correspondence, magazines, newspapers, gifts, photographs, business records, and material that passed through his hands to put in an open cardboard box by his desk. Once the box was full, he sealed it with tape, marked it with a date and/or title, and put it in his archive. When The Andy Warhol Museum opened in 1994, the ‘Time Capsules’ became accessible to the public, revealing new and important information about Warhol’s life and expanding the public’s understanding of his work and practice.
‘Took a few time capsule boxes to the office. They are fun – when you go through them there’s things you really don’t want to give up. Some day I’ll sell them for $4,000 or $5,000 apiece. I used to think $100, but now I think that’s my new price.’
Andy Warhol in: The Andy Warhol Diaries, September 30, 1986
WATCH VIDEO > THE UNBOXING OF TC22 (BBC, 1990)
Thank you to Steffen & Catharina for this wonderful clue!
May 27, 2021
@JAIMEJENKINS_
BOARDING #14
JAIME JENKINS, Tauranga
INVITED BY KARL FRITSCH & LISA WALKER
Dear Jaime, we first met you when you visited our place once with friends quite a while ago. Then we got to know your mega beautiful work so good. Yours Karl & Lisa
May 26, 2021
@TOFU_THE_BIRMAN
Tofu is living in a box!
Thanks to Haiyue and Xinyu for the portrait of Tofu, who is generously sharing his apartment and studio with them.
May 22, 2021
CORDULAKAFKA.DE
BOARDING #13
CORDULA KAFKA, Berlin
Dear Cordula, the very special power of fragility is the fascinating thing about your work. Please wrap up well! Yours Silke
May 20, 2021
First boardings – the collection starts
We are very happy to announce the first boardings from Berlin, Munich, London, Milan, Kyoto, Hangzhou and Wellington. There are more to follow!
May 20, 2021
Doll’s house in a carrier bag*
Flat packed, quick and convenient to set up, easily cut to size.
* Puppenhaus in der Tragetasche. Flachliegend, schnell und bequem aufzustellen, einfache Zuschnitte. Studienarbeit, HfbK Hamburg, Fotografie: Hans Meyer-Veden und Eberhard Troeger. In: Kurt Londenberg, Papier und Form – Design in der Papierverarbeitung, Krefeld 1972
May 20, 2021
@KARLFRITSCHRINGS @LISAAAAWALKER
BOARDING #12
KARL FRITSCH &
LISA WALKER, Wellington
Dear Karl, Dear Lisa, when you hung our letter holder as a piece of jewellery around your neck, I was indignant and honoured at the same time. Yours Dominik
May 18, 2021
Solid cardboard boxes.
Berlin-Mitte, Choriner Straße
May 17, 2021
SOPHIESMALLHORN.CO.UK
BOARDING #11
SOPHIE SMALLHORN, London
INVITED BY SEBASTIAN BERGNE
Dear Sophie, since our first collaboration it’s always a pleasure to exchange thoughts on colour, geometry and form. Nice to have you onside for this little adventure. Yours Sebastian
May 16, 2021
Please help yourself
The cardboard boxes infront of the entrances contain mostly clothing, chipped plates and glasses and stuff that can be described as the useless sediment of kitchen and nursery drawers. In some of them you can find books – after a rain, they are humid and waved. Quite often these boxes are full of useless things.
Even though most of these boxes seem trashy there are chances to find some favourite pieces. The secret is to comb through every single box you see, regardless of its appearance. When you find them emptied you suspect that there might have been something valuable in it.
May 14, 2021
@DAVIDBIELANDER @HELENBRITTONARTIST
BOARDING #10
DAVID BIELANDER & HELEN BRITTON, München
Dear David, Dear Helen, we are just a phone call apart – a daily opportunity in my pocket since a long time. Yours Dominik
May 14, 2021
Staying in quarantine – time to open the Living in a Box envelope under an incredible sky. David and Helen are preparing Helen’s exhibition ‘The Dark Garden’ at Galleria Antonella Villanova in Foiano della Chiana in Arezzo, Italy. Opening tomorrow!
May 12, 2021
VERENABACHL.COM
BOARDING #09
VERENA BACHL, Berlin
INVITED BY BABETTE WIEZOREK
Dear Verena, sharing our studio place and tons of common ideas we are usually hunting a perspective that lies out of the box. But this time, let’s go to reveal the micro cosmos of the inside. Yours Babette
May 12, 2021
Steve lived next to us – in a box.
Steve Robinson, born 1963 in Bristol died in April 2021 in Berlin. He lived next to us in our neighbourhood on a bench in a small park – since years. In winter 2020 the owner of the empanadas shop La Criolla opposite the ‘Stadtplatz Marie’ has built a box for him to live in. The empty and closed box is a memorial now.
Read the last interview with Steve the Kiez legend here.
May 11, 2021
YUUEDESIGN.COM
BOARDING #08
HAIYUE TAO &
XINYU WENG, Hangzhou / Berlin
Dear Haiyue, Dear Xinyu, your studio is two blocks away from my flat and yet so far away at the same time. Yours Dominik
May 11, 2021
Little boxes
Song by Malvina Reynolds, 1962
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same,
There’s a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
And the people in the houses
All went to the university
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same
And there’s doctors and lawyers
And business executives
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.
And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same,
There’s a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
May 10, 2021
CARGOCOLLECTIVE.COM
BOARDING #07
PAULA VAN BRUMMELEN, Berlin
INVITED BY JONAS SCHNEIDER & VALENTIN LINDAU
Dear Paula, we spent hours soldering hundreds of tiny cables to bring life onto one of your interactive surfaces. Now we wonder what it would take to bring life into a box? Yours Jonas & Valentin
May 10, 2021
Seat on a high seat.
Karow, Schönerlinder Chaussee
Thank you Jörg from siebensachen for sharing this picture!
May 7, 2021
MIKAN.DE
BOARDING #06
MARIKO TAKAGI, Kyoto
Dear Mariko, what happens when German letters and Japanese characters meet unobserved in an unlit box? Yours Silke
May 7, 2021
Yellow 14%.
In Germany the favourite colours for house facades are beige 14%, yellow 14%, red 12% and white 12% followed by blue 10% and green 10%. White is still one of the four most popular facade colours but has lost a lot of popularity at just 12% compared to 30% ten years ago.
May 6, 2021
LORENZ-KAZ.COM
BOARDING #05
STEFFEN KAZ &
CATHARINA LORENZ, Milano
Dear Steffen, Dear Catharina, over a year ago we skyped twice a week about the situation in Milan. This became a kind of forecast for us here in Germany. Yours Dominik
May 6, 2021
JONAS & VALENTIN write:
A few days ago we received the invitation to Living in a Box – Collection of Artefacts. We’re happy to join and curious to see the projects unfold.
May 5, 2021
STUDIO-HINT.COM
BOARDING #04
JONAS SCHNEIDER &
VALENTIN LINDAU, Berlin
Dear Jonas, Dear Valentin, although we met purposefully by coincidence on the empty street in front of my office, I am happy about our planned walks, even when it was cold. Yours Dominik
May 5, 2021
Polly Pocket’s tiny house.
Berlin-Wedding, Torfstraße
May 4, 2021
ADDITIVEADDICTED.DE
BOARDING #03
BABETTE WIEZOREK, Berlin
Dear Babette, you were the first colleague I got to know through a video conference on my laptop screen – we live in the same city but we haven’t met in person yet. Yours Dominik
May 3, 2021
A beggar me, a count of empty boxes.
That is all I own in this world.
The Everly Brothers, 1968
May 2, 2021
BOARDING #02
SOPHIE ALEX, Berlin
Dear Sophie, what tones and sounds does a cardboard box make? Or what patterns does it decorate itself with? Undiscovered territory until now. Yours Silke
May 1, 2021
How to wrap 5 eggs – in a box?
This morning the random fit of 5 eggs in a simple cardboard box prompted us to have again a look at Hideyuki Oka’s wonderful book ‘How to wrap 5 eggs’ from 1967. Traditional Japanese packaging: baskets, boxes, wrappers, and containers that were used in ordinary, day-to-day life, constructed of bamboo, rice straw, hemp twine, paper, and leaves, …
A re-encounter also with George Nelson’s foreword, which he wrote over 50 (!) years ago: ‘To suit the needs of super mass production, the traditional natural materials are too obstreperous . . . and one by one we have replaced them with the docile, predicable synthetics. . . . What we have gained from these [new] materials and wonderfully complicated processes to make up for the general pollution, rush, crowding, noise, sickness, and slickness is a subject for other forums. But what we have lost for sure is what this book is all about: a once-common sense of fitness in the relationships between hand, material, use, and shape, and above all, a sense of delight in the look and feel of very ordinary, humble things. This book is thus . . . a totally unexpected monument to a culture, a way of life, a universal sensibility carried through all objects down to the smallest, most inconsequential, and ephemeral things.’
Photos by Michikazu Sakai
April 30, 2021
SEBASTIANBERGNE.COM
BOARDING #01
SEBASTIAN BERGNE, London
Dear Sebastian, when I had come, you had already left. This was in Bolzano years ago. Following your work since then gives me the certainty that we would have got on well as colleagues. Yours Dominik
April 29, 2021
Signed, Sealed, Delivered.
Berlin-Mitte, Max-Beer-Straße
April 24, 2021
Boxauto & Lunchbox.
Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, Schönhauser Allee
April 22, 2021
First challenge: Folding the box!
A short visual advice how to fold the box. Andres needed a few turns but now he can manage this fluently. Again and again!
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KICK-OFF
April 21, 2021
Split screen: Dominik at his famous Späti in Prenzlauer Berg and Silke at the post office in Berlin-Pankow. Today 21 invitations are leaving Berlin to Germany, Austria, France, UK, Italy, USA, Japan and New Zealand. We are looking forward to your participations!
April 19, 2021
A warm box in pale cool light.
Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, Chodowieckistraße
April 17, 2021
720.000 bees are living in 18 boxes.
Mühlenbeck, Brandenburg
March 30, 2021
Take a seat on an open box!
Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, Prenzlauer Allee
March 20, 2021
Garage Band.
Thank you Vreneli from Kassel for sharing this picture!
March 16, 2021
Crisis?
What Crisis?
The parasol installation of our neighbour reminds me of the iconic artwork on the Supertramp album cover of 1975. In his 2021 version the sunshade is blue instead of yellow.
March 9, 2021
Living in a Box by Living in a Box, 1987
Woke up this morning
Closed in on all sides
Nothing doing
I feel resistance
As I open my eyes
Someone’s fooling
I’ve found a way to break through this cellophane line
Cause I know what’s going on in my own mind
Am I living in a box?
Am I living in a cardboard box?
Am I living in a box?
Am I living in a cardboard box?
Am I living in a box?
Life goes in circles
Around and around, circulating
I sometimes wonder
What’s moving underground
I’m escaping
I’ve found a way to break through this cellophane line
Cause I know what’s going on in my own mind
Am I living in a box? (living)
Am I living in a cardboard box?
Am I living in a box? (living)
Am I living in a cardboard box?
Am I living in a box?
Woah
Uh-huh
I found a way to break through this cellophane line
Cause I know what’s going on in my own mind
Am I living in a box? (living)
Am I living in a cardboard box?
Am I living in a box? (living)
Am I living in a cardboard box?
Am I living in a box? (living)
Am I living in a cardboard box?
Am I living in a box? (living)
Am I living in a cardboard box?
Am I living in a box? (living)
Am I living in a cardboard box?
Am I living in a box? (living)
Am I living in a cardboard box?
Am I living, am I living, am I living
Am I living, am I living, am I living
Am I living in a box? (am I living, am I living)
Am I living in a cardboard box?
Am I living in a box? (am I living, am I living)
Am I living in a cardboard box?
Am I living in a box?