Discourse - DIALOGUE SEAT 002

This Spring, multi-disciplinary creative Anna Pesonen unveils DISCOURSE - a limited-edition capsule of collectible, functional marble sculptures traversing the boundary of art and design. Known primarily for her work as an image director and stylist, the launch marks Pesonen’s debut into the world of sculpture.

Handmade by Pesonen and local artisans, the marble works invite sitters into discourse, commanding a metaphysical atmosphere of presence and peace which surrounds sitters when occupied.

Through the medium of sculpture, Pesonen carves out a space for introspection and dialogue, as a counteragent to the global challenges in today’s information age and the current socio-political climate. She is suggesting sculpture as a vehicle for contemplation as well as both simultaneously literal and figurative moment of pause.

Handmade in Italy over a two year period from Carrara Marble, the form nods to both modernism and brutalism. Pesonen comments “The works are related to concepts of liminality, disconnection caused by the intensification of divisive politics and media, the solidarity generation, solastalgia, identity & community.
My hope is that the seats invite us into discourse - with ourselves as well as with other individuals, groups or ideologies.”

The first in the series, the single form 'INTROSPECTION SEAT 001', compels self-reflection, free from distraction and judgement. The seat function as a real-world ‘journal’, a site for improving one’s relationship with one’s self and therefore in our communities.

The 'DIALOGUE SEAT 002' functions in tandem — as two seats are connected side by side, they create a confidential shared moment for the two sitters, a feeling of unity despite facing different directions. The chair silently and solidly commands the sitters to do nothing more than sit, together, face to face and as Pesonen says “to confer, to find solutions, to recognise the human in one another.”

Shot through her signature editorial lens featuring model Ottawa Kwami, Pesonen stages the works in dialogue with one another and their origin; the marble quarry at the top of the Apuan Alps, northwest Italy.

Sound design by Mika Vainio.