Chaise de concentration

Strongly influenced by his native culture, Chinese artist Chen Zhen doesn't hesitate to subvert it with both humor and respect, as shown in the “concentration chair” (chaise de concentration) built with various elements of traditional Chinese furniture, i.e. a wooden chair and two chamber pots that serve as loudspeakers.

This bare installation corresponds to its creator's assumption, inspired by Chinese philosophy, that “health depends in the end on a balancing act, on interior peace and universal compassion. It requires individual and social meditation, a ‘cleansing’ of the mind and body.” The “concentration chair” is thus for the artist the place for “mental emptiness”, which is beneficial for all.

Among the artist's last artworks and now held in the Pinault Collection, Chaise de concentration was presented in the group show À Triple tour. Collection Pinault (“triple locked”) at the Paris Conciergerie, in 2013, as well as in the Faire Avec exhibition at the Laennec Chapel in Paris on the occasion of the 2017 European Heritage Days.