designed by Ginbande * (Uwe Fischer & Klaus-Achim Heine) in 1987 for Vitra, Germany, oak, aluminium, laminated wood, height 77 cm, width 125 cm, length 90"“475 cm. (DR) Shown in 1987 at the exhibition "Des Menschen Platz am Tisch" in Milan. Produced by Vitra as a limited edition. Provenance: private collection, Vienna-Frankfurt Lit.: V. Albus, Ch. Borngräber, Design Bilanz. Neues deutsches Design der 80er Jahre in Objekten, Bildern, Daten und Texten, Cologne 1992, pp. 120"“28, pp. 161"“63, fig. 124 "“ P. Conley, "Ginbande Design. Ein Gespräch mit Uwe Fischer und Klaus-Achim Heine", in: Art Position, second special issue, August 1990, pp. 28/29 "“ B. E. Bürdek, Design, Cologne 1991, p. 350. "Tabula Rasa" consists of a combination of folding grille and roller shutter mechanisms and accordingly segmented wooden panels corresponding to the width of a seat or table. When folded, the table disappears inside a plain wooden box. The number of people intending to sit down at this table determines the piece of furniture"™s size. So its length always adjusts itself to the size of the dinner party or to the table"™s function "“ whether it is used as a work, conference, or dinner table. "Tabula Rasa" is not simply a table, but a system that, in its respective configuration, allows for different applications. This open utilization is ensured by the neutrality of its construction and material. "The traditional principle of form follows function has not been realized here in a one-dimensional utilitarian way, but has insofar deliberately been expanded by a social component as the table does not simply represent a device on which certain things can be placed at a height so that they can be reached from a sitting position, but is understood as the centre of an assembly that may vary in number." (V.Albus-Ch.Borngräber)