LUCAS MAASSEN & SONS
SEE THE LIGHTNESS

story by:
Margriet Craens

poem by:
K. Schippers:

publication by:
Marine Delgado

commissioned by:
Jan van Eyck Academy Maastricht

images by:
Teun van Beers 
Simon Wald-Lasowski

video by:
Teun van Beers 

drawings by:
Thijme Maassen
Julian Maassen
Maris Maassen

thanks to:
Jonas van de Vossen, Huib Haye van der Werf, Lex ter Braak, schietvereniging HSV de Helm, Rob Persoons, TU Delft, Rijks Museum Amsterdam

In 2015 Van Eyck Mirror asked designer Lucas Maassen to work as temporary artist-in-residence in the Heimo Lab (metal workshop). For the exhibition SEE THE LIGHTNESS Maassen has taken the famous perforated aluminum chair made by Gerrit Rietveld as his inspiration. This chair was intended for mass-production however Rietveld and his sons ultimately produced only four. The story goes they did this at the kitchen table. As Lucas Maassen also works together with his (pubescent) sons, they have decided to re-produce this chair in three different ways: A kitchen table based on the mould for making the chair and a chair made from this mould (an almost exact copy). A version with holes shot into it by a firearm (Baretta 22 mm) by the writer K-Schippers based on the poem (zoek) he specially wrote for this project. And last an exact copy made of carbon based on a story (Rietveld and the Lightness) written by Margriet Craens. In this fictional story Rietveld builds a chair so light it fly’s away.

Alongside the chairs and the kitchen table there are three silkscreens made of drawings by the Maassen sons.

The purpose of Maassen is to acquaint his sons in an educational manner with the work of Gerrit Rietveld. In an attempt to re-write history in a more playful way they try to shine a light on the (historical) context of their own company; lucas maassen & sons.