IKEA disobedients

Source: MoMA PS1

IKEA Disobedients, an architectural performance by Madrid-based Andrés Jaque Arquitectos, was recently acquired by MoMA. The international premiere of the performance at MoMA PS1, part of the 9+1 Ways of Being Political exhibition at MoMA, reveals how recent architectural practices utilize performative actions to engage audiences with architecture in a non-traditional way.

The performance takes place in a setting made of IKEA-hacked pieces and invites neighbors in Queens to reenact their politically-charged domestic activities. According to Jaque, the performance suggests disobedience to the lifestyles proposed by brands such as IKEA, proposing "an urban counter-notion of the domestic" instead—one that discloses how politically active citizens can and do act outside of the privacy of their homes. Excerpt text: MoMA 

...Each of the nine participants...were selected on account of how their own domestic lives exist apart from the professed "norm".  Whether through activism or entrepreneurship these individuals are bringing social and political actions into the personal sanctum of the home. Throughout the two performances each performer will go about the social actions that routinely take place within their own homes, from providing haircuts and food to discussing the nature of their own ideas about what a contemporary domestic idyll encompasses.  The audience is encouraged to participate and interact within the space and voice their own thoughts on the idea of the home as not a neutral space but one where "controversy and disagreement (can arise) at the site where affections may also emerge..." Excerpt text: MoMA PS1