The concept of ‘hostile furniture’ is a contemporary interpretation of hostile architecture, which aims to expel people from places or to make it as unpleasant as possible to linger at certain locations. In architecture, its main aim is to banish homeless people or addicts. Here, that concept is taken into interior spaces to point out the absurdity of this aspect of urban planning. In addition, moving inside also opens the discussion about personal space and self-protection.
For the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) with its motto REPUBLIC OF GODS, the series has been expanded by a pew from a Catholic church, as the church also harbours such tensions.
While it preaches neighbourly love, that love is often tied to moral and religious conditions so that it no longer seems quite so unconditional.