5 LIRE STOOLS AND CONTAINERS, 2015. PHOTOS BY AUGUSTIN OCHSENREITER

5 Lire is a sculpture, an installation. It is a limited edition of stools realised in three different heights or custom-made. It is a collection of oversized piled up coins of old Italian 5 liras, made of solid oak. It is a series of containers, which can be used as laundry bins, or as boxes for storing medium-sized objects. The upper coin is magnetically fixed and serves as a lid that hides a deep felt pocket underneath.

5 Lire is also a provocation. Their huge scale are redundant and have a symbolic meaning, i.e. they represent the importance given to money in our society, the longing for money and accumulation. In Italy as in many other countries, today as in the past, money stands for power and social status, success and abuse, but it actually keeps you away from the pursuit of genuine life quality and it leads to the consumption of nature’s most precious resources.

PILE OF COINS, 2015