Jerszy Seymour | The Council for the Progenesis of the Archaic Festival

Jerszy Seymour quotes Georges Batailles’ Theory of Religion as an introduction to his work: ‘The Archaic Festival which can be seen as the most glorious affirmation of life through destructive consumption will also sow the seeds of another more ominous order – war.’

To begin with, he created a primary forest made from rolls of Divina, both as metaphor to social structure and to nature. The forest is then harvested and cut up with a chainsaw somewhere between violence and beauty, whilst the monotone of an 808 kick pulses in the background, leaving a circle of stump seating and a ravaged surrounding. The result, ‘The Council for the Progenesis of the Archaic Festival’, is a place to discuss this fundamental paradox of human nature.

Seymour explains: ‘The Archaic Festival that comes after the harvest can be seen as a release from the awareness of man’s earthly mortality. It brings us towards loss of self, imminence, ecstasy, animality, and divinity. The other side of this same energy also brings us to destruction and war.’

Born in Berlin, Jerszy Seymour grew up in London during the eclectic turbulence of the 1980s, where he studied engineering at South Bank Polytechnic and industrial design at the Royal College of Art. He perceives design as the creation of situations and the relationships we develop with the constructed world, the natural world, other people and ourselves. In 2004 he formed the Jerszy Seymour Design Workshop in Berlin where he embarked on a series of projects that sought to revitalise the position of design within society. His work spans from industrial and post-industrial produced objects, actions, interventions and installations, and covers a range of mediums and materials. He has designed products and strategies for companies including Magis, Vitra, Alessi, Hermes, and Moulinex, and he is represented by Gallery Kreo in Paris and Berlin.