Thonet - The Musical

One group I have always enjoyed while living in Buenos Aires is "Les Luthiers". You can call them a "musical group" but their art is a mix of parody, comedy and good music with clever lyrics plus -as the name implies- their own homemade musical instruments, that are normally made with very unusual things, like toilet parts, typewriters or cans.

Of course I am not the only one that likes what they do, they are pretty well known, not just in Argentina but in many, many, other countries. Last year the group celebrated 40 years on stage.

For such occassion there was an exhibit of their own instruments (like the one above) but also some other artists contributed for the show with their own creations as a tribute to Les Luthiers. That is how I came across the work of Pablo Reinoso -also Argentinian-, sculptor and designer.

A huge part of his work is around the Thonet chairs: he has made Thonets "to wear", sculptures deconstructing them and now he has also transform some of those chairs into musical instruments.

Check out some of his work:

"The Melting Thonet"

Thoneteando
(that could be translated as "Thoneting")

And last but not least, one of the "musical instruments" he made as a tribute for the Les Luthiers' show... An object with a creepy name, but a great design: ladies and gentleman, with you, "The Electric Chair"!



I have some Thonet chairs in my house in Buenos Aires that I inherited from my grandma's house. I wonder if I could get them to become something like this. So far, we have been restoring them, and restoring them and restoring them, and they are not so comfortable to sit in to start with...(sigh) I rather have this electric chair!

If you want to see more of his work, visit Pablo's site.