Austria, 2015, hardboard, construction wood, film coated plywood, stovepipe, white lacquered bar stools, mirror, metal fittings, stained plywood, two specially produced handmade glasses (diameter / height approx. 70mm) made of lamp-blown borosilicate glass, a specially produced bottle made of lamp-blown borosilicate glass, with cut stopper (diameter approx. 10 cm, height approx. 27,5 cm), and an ashtray (found object), inscribed: PROTOTYP 2015 and marked: BREADED ESACALOPE, height 185 cm, width 160 cm, depth 70 cm. (DRAX)

Prototype for a series of 7 specimens. Developed for the first exhibition devoted to the subject of the “Salon” at the Ganz Neue Galerie in Vienna.

“The Non-Lieu bar is first and foremost a piece of furniture, its dimensions based on a traditional cocktail cabinet. Its ambitions to do justice to a non-place are fulfilled through the possibility that it can be entered and thus perceived as a (paradoxical) space. Thanks to this perspective, the piece of furniture extends into an atmospheric bar or pub in the spectator’s perception.

The interior deliberately relies on the American Bar in Vienna’s first district (Adolf Loos, 1908). The panelled ceiling is infinitely reproduced through wrap-around mirrors; the mahogany coloured walls and a single candle as a light source bathe the space in cosy twilight; the equipment, reduced to the basic essentials, is limited to two specially designed handmade glasses, a glass bottle, and an ashtray.
The item’s exterior breaks with the design concept of its interior. The geometric struts are intended to constructively reinforce the corpus and suggest the mobility of a transport box that is already alluded to by the item’s design.

The Non-Lieu bar is indeed first and foremost merely a piece of furniture – it is indeed a non-place. But through the subjective experience of its utilisation it grows into a space that can occupy and create multiple (real) places due to its dimensions and mobile nature.

Its name thus only defines the guarantee of its undefined original condition. Subsequently, the object, when perceived subjectively, develops into a useful and coveted place for its owner.” (breadedEscalope)