What functions can a chair have? Would children rather move, rock and play than sit still? Seen from a child’s perspective – do they even need a chair? The exhibition “Mini Furniture: Chairs for Children” at the MK&G invites visitors to playfully explore these questions as they examine and try out different seating options, always with children in mind. A selection of over 130 historical and current children’s chairs from the private Reinke Collection and the holdings of the MK&G illustrates child-friendly furniture over two centuries in a wide range of different designs: from traditional highchairs and nineteenth-century models such as the “Stabelle”, to Art Nouveau and Bauhaus chairs, and onward to 1960s pop design and the furniture of today. Iconic chairs meet up here with lesser-known designer objects covering a broad spectrum, including miniatures of classic adult chairs such as the “Panton Junior” by Verner Panton, chairs in which the child can be fixed in place, as well as pedagogical play and reform furniture that supports children’s motor, social and creative development. 

The exhibition encourages visitor participation at interactive stations: children can, for example, climb onto rolling “Wirbel Wichtel” chairs and paint colourful traces of their trajectories, making visible the connection between furniture, movement and play. With an oversized peg-board game, they can try out different seat heights – and playfully discover varied postures. At a stamping and painting station, visitors big and small can devise their own chair designs and exercise their creativity with the help of the four exhibition mascots – Dös, Wackel, Hotzl and Pling. Certain areas of the exhibition also let visitors test items such as an armchair or a gaming chair.

The design of the exhibition was developed by Max Guderian and the graphics conceived by Larissa Mantel.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Exhibition Fund of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the Hans Brökel Stiftung für Wissenschaft und Kultur.