Art joins forces with the circular economy in a new exhibition promoted by IKEA Italy

IKEA Circular Exhibition aims to put circular economy on display, as artworks complete with an artist’s creative flair. On display at BASE in Milan and exclusively on CharityStars, twenty-six artworks interpret the power of reused objects that have been stripped of their original function, and then given a 2.0 function.

What’s a chair if it isn’t something to sit on? It’s made up of lines, corners and materials that can have a function that goes far beyond its original purpose. You just close your eyes for a minute and then open them again. The chair is no longer a chair. From a object that is accommodating by nature to a pointed, inhospitable creation, one that raises many questions: can you sit on it? Can you still use it?

If you look around you’ll see a bathroom cabinet that acts as a vegetable garden with plants protected by a cupboard door and bathed in infinite shards of light from the mirrors that once reflected a thousand tired faces from the heavy night before.

You will continue to be amazed to see new forms and new uses, new possibilities for materials that would usually be put out with the garbage without a second thought. This is the full expression of the circular economy, presented in a in a language that is understandable and accessible for all. Every object is reduced to its original components and then re-elaborated, reinvented and prepared for its new function.

They’ll say that the chair isn’t a chair anymore. The cabinet isn’t a cabinet, and the structure that now stands stern but also feels welcoming was once part of a bed. Welcome to the circular economy. It takes nothing from the environment and it enriches souls with new possibilities.

Twenty-six memories and twenty-six new adventures, designed and built without demanding anything from the environment and its resources. All that’s needed is a little imagination to consider how these versions can function in the home. Unmissable.