Chilean contemporary art gallery Departamento 21 commissioned Sebastian Errazuriz to re-design the entry door of the gallery as a sculpture, an art piece in and of itself.
(Click the images below for full sized images)
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The gallery, located on two floors of a residential apartment building in Santiago, has always functioned behind a common unmarked door, with no outward signs that announce or indicate the presence of the gallery.
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While attempting to come up with a concept Sebastian Errazuriz explains: "I tried to resist 'designing a door'. I didn't want to create a door that was sculptural or pictorial, I wanted the door to hopefully continue to blend with the rest of the building and maintain its apparent anonymity as just another a normal apartment; nevertheless I also wished to leave a small clue that would invite the passerby to stop, look twice and maybe suspect that things where different."
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"It occurred to me that we have used door viewers for a couple hundred years... we have been stupidly squinting and closing our eyes for all this time, why not have two viewers instead? We have had binoculars for even longer."
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The two viewers are placed - inverted - inside the door, thus allowing people outside the door to approach and look inside the apartment and see the current exhibition, which remains illuminated even when the gallery is closed.






