'Seats of Power': Chairs as a status symbol

Sitting has a bad standing today: Doctors warn that it is bad for the back and blood circulation. Some even claim that sitting is the new form of smoking.

But apart from such health consequences, sitting has always been a symbol of power and strength. Of course, where and on which chair someone sits has always been decisive.

The Vitra Design Museum in southern Germany's Weil am Rhein is dedicating its current exhibition "Seats of Power" to the relationship between the powerful of this world and their seating.

Through some 20 selected objects from the museum's collection, the exhibition shows how political, social and economic power are still expressed in chairs today.

Sitting as a privilege of the powerful

The origins of the modern chair go back to the throne seats of antiquity. "Until the Middle Ages, elevated seating was reserved to rulers and the upper classes," curator Heng Zhi told DW. "At the time, sitting was not for reasons of comfort, but to convey authority."

Why seated? Wouldn't a ruler appear much bigger, more powerful and perhaps even more threatening standing up? "The symbols of power of the time were not simple chairs. The ruler sat elevated on an oversized, towering throne, which went far beyond their actual body size." Heng Zhi explained.

"The Pope's throne that we show in the exhibition, for example, has a backrest that is more than two meters high. The chair is also very wide. With such an object, a ruler can emphasize his position of power."

The spread of democracy through industrialization

The powerful today no longer occupy such opulent thrones but rather rest on far more modest seats. It took a long time to democratize the act of sitting to today's standards. The rise of the middle classes in the modern age allowed for this shift to take place: Chairs "were only democratized once industrial mass production became an option," said the curator. "The 19th century Thonet Chair was, for example, one of the first mass-produced chairs in history."

Read more: 5 timeless furniture designs from Germany

It is not a coincidence that the democratization of furniture followed the overall proliferation of democratic values in the Western societies.  Most national parliaments these days have a circular arrangement of seats. Many international institutions follow that example as well.

One picture shown at the exhibition highlights the assembly hall of the UN Security Council. "Representatives from each country take their seats in a circle there, and each seat comes with its own microphone. No one presides over the proceedings in this circle, at least not in a conventional sense. Everyone is represented as equal," pointed out Heng Zhi.

Regardless of such examples, there are still associations of power and status when it comes to chairs. "Differences in power are communicated in far more subtle manners," the curator told DW. Despite attempts to provide an overall image of equality, many of the powerful players in politics, economics, sports or culture keep expressing their status through the furniture they sit on. Sometimes it's just a minimal difference in height of a back rest, other times it's the use of higher quality materials. But a difference in power is still conveyed in chairs and seats designed today.

Heng Zhi obtained her PhD from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Since early 2016 she is the curator of the Vitra Design Museum.