Core77

Antenna's installation in a former Torino prison cell repackages the sand bag with a new friendlier felt-covered skin. Typically associated with emergencies, they've built a playful "lounge-scape" from the modular bags which also serves as a reminder of imminent disaster, not unlike Homeland Securities constantly updated national threat level.

Flexibility - design in a fast changing society
June 29 - October 12, 2008
Via Paolo Borsellino 1
10138 Torino

From the Press Release:

SPECTRE
The installation, SPECTRE, is inspired by a ubiquitous improvisational "building block": the sandbag. The sandbag is a pervasive object used in various situations of emergency and temporary set-up, such as battlefields, floods, earthquakes and other disaster scenes. We are giving the sandbag a new "skin" and context, which transforms the way it is perceived allowing it to enter a different realm of existence.

In the installation, the sandbags are composed to suggest a possible domestic landscape. As such they become functional as a comfortable and flexible furniture and divider system. No particular mode of use is prescribed, only hinted at by what the sandbag connotes. The setting can be easily modified for a change of situation. A sandbag barricade in a home may appear like a surrealistic operation or it may inspire the childhood memory of creating a make-believe hideout. Nevertheless, it is a constant reminder of potential emergency situations: a spectre

The installation talks about a condition that is no longer seen as an exceptional circumstance, but as a new reality. One in which improvisation and impermanence are the prevailing aesthetic. It reflects a state of alertness that may feel unsettling, at the same time it expresses a liberation of not being rooted and an almost childlike playfulness. The sandbags are filled with a mix of sand and foam beads providing both comfort and stability. A thick felt cover gives the bags a soft and enduring quality, countering the common perception of a sandbag's disposability.