Flora Lechner
–The ideal body
The ‘Divine Divan’ is the first act of Flora Lechner’s graduation project Shape Shifter. It questions our obsession of running after the “perfect” contour: shaping oneself to fit to the imagination of the ideal body, while – in order to achieve this – at the same time getting trapped in an endless cycle of permanent performative acts. The mother-object, an abstruse fitness machine, is split apart in limbs to generate new objects and scenarios.
In her work Flora Lechner combines design, moving image and performance. She focuses on the relations between body-object and body-space. Educated as an industrial designer, she first inspects the utility and handling that an object or material suggests. By interrupting, repurposing or even over-emphasizing such qualities, she challenges the conventions of formal and material shifts, always keeping a humorous perspective.