Climate change and environmental pollution are highly topical issues that concern each and every one of us and can only be tackled by joining forces. Together with the British artist Michael Pinsky, we wanted to take a slightly different look at the causes of and solutions to global warming with the exhibition THE FINAL BID. Against this backdrop, we created an extremely special and unique exhibition project that playfully transformed our MAIN SPACE into an auction space for chairs.

Our daily consumption of things has the largest ecological footprint. Furniture production in particular is problematic due to the use of composite materials and their negative recycling balance. One approach to reducing personal CO₂ consumption is therefore actually a quite obvious one: buying and selling used furniture. To motivate our visitors and the people of the Mettingen region, and to raise awareness of the fact that sustainable action can also be fun, we worked with the artist to develop an auction platform that allowed the chairs to rise up on ropes with every monetary bid. The special feature: bids could be placed not only during the museum visit, but also via our website from anywhere in the world. The installation was set in motion with each new bid, like a ballet of chairs, and together they created an expansive sculptural ensemble.

The best “reward” for this project was that we succeeded in motivating so many people far beyond our usual audience and involving them in the project. Not only were we able to offer well over a hundred chairs for sale, but we were also able to sell them all. The fact that all the chairs had found new owners by the end of the exhibition, which also marked the end of the auction, speaks volumes for the great success of this project and therefore also for the Draiflessen Collection team.