Freischwinger takes up the frame of the Thonet S 33, a canonical icon of modern design. Yet where the chair’s seat should be, the upholstery and covering are entirely absent. In their place are leather straps that do not support the body, but merely mark and delimit it.

An object structures not only functions, but also bodies, movements, and modes of behavior. Freischwinger lays bare this ordering principle by simultaneously adopting and sabotaging a familiar design language: the frame promises a seat, only to withdraw it at the same moment. The straps can hold, support, and secure—but they can equally restrain, restrict, and bind.

Through this displacement, the authority of the design icon itself also becomes questionable. With it remains a promise of modernity in which design, function, and progress were closely intertwined. Freischwinger does not simply make this promise disappear; instead, it reveals how it persists in the present as a damaged yet still effective form.