Studiomama donated the manufacturing rights of The Pallet Chair to non-profit organisation Amistad o Nada in Argentina’s Buenos Aires and invited Gavin Turk, Rachel Whiteread and Cornelia Parker to each customise a pallet chair in support of the charity’s work in 2009.
Cecilia Glik, a photographer, gallery owner and charity worker for Amistad o Nada, has taught a collective of formerly unemployed people in District 20 in the Lugano neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, one of the oldest and most deprived slums in the city, to make the Studiomama’s Pallet Chair using locally sourced pallets. The furniture is then sold through local networks, providing dignified work for those who are most vulnerable to economic and social disparity – and an affordable source of furniture in Argentina.
As part of this initiative, Studiomama invited British artists Gavin Turk, Cornelia Parker and Rachel Whiteread to each customise a Pallet Chair. Turk’s ‘Pollocky’, Whiteread’s ‘Untitled’ and Parker’s ‘Beach Chair’ were auctioned to raise funds for Amistad o Nada.
‘I am an admirer of Nina Tolstrup’s direct, functional, no-nonsense design,’ says Rachel Whiteread. ‘The Pallet Project is a generous and humble venture that deserves support.’