Talks
Sitting on Air: A Brief History of the Cantilever Chair
Mateo Kries
In our second session of The Deep Dive, Mateo Kries, the director of the Vitra Design Museum and the editor of The Atlas of Furniture Design discusses the Cantilever chair’s rich history of experimentation and innovation. This illustrated talk examines the impact of new technologies on the design and unique typology of cantilever seating, tracing different designers’ take on it over time.
Mateo Kries
Director, Vitra Design Museum
Mateo Kries has been director of the Vitra Design Museum since 2011. He joined the Vitra Design Museum in 1995, working first as a curator, then as manager of the Museum’s branch in Berlin, where he also co-founded the ‘DESIGNMAI’ festival, before moving on to become Chief Curator at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein.
Mateo has been responsible for numerous exhibitions and has published a wide range of books and papers. He has written about architecture and design personalities as Le Corbusier, Joe Colombo, and Konstantin Grcic, and topics including design and surrealism as well as non-Western design. His publications address the social, political, and theoretical aspects of design and architecture. His book ‘Total Design :examining contemporary perceptions of design’ was published in 2010. Mateo is co-editor of the ‘Atlas of Furniture Design’ (2019), the most comprehensive book on furniture design ever published.
Mateo holds a Master of Arts degree in History of Art and Sociology and a DPhil in History of Art from Berlin’s Humboldt University.
