There once were 20 multi-colored musical rocking chairs that sat comfortably in the plaza just east of the Denver Art Museum's entrance.
Originally introduced in 2017, the piece known as "La Musidora" was so popular that the museum decided to bring them back three more times.
A Denverite reader noticed this year that they are gone and asked us to find out where they went. The short answer: they've been recycled.
"Museum visitors and our community actively enjoyed La Musidora, but the chairs and the materials they were made with could not sustain one more year of use and exposure to the elements," said DAM spokesperson Andy Sinclair.
The Mexico City-based designers Esrawe + Cadena envisioned that the woven plastic musical rocking chairs to be an ephemeral, one-time piece to be used during the summer.
However, as a result of positive feedback following the 2017 season, the chairs were seated by the DAM for three additional summers in 2018, 2019 and then again in 2022 until they were "de-installed, disassembled and recycled" at the end of last year's season.
Over the years, the Mexico City-based design duo has kept a close working relationship with the DAM.
DAM commissioned Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena to design the colorful, interactive 90-foot long installation on June 30, 2017. Inspired by urban furniture in the city of Mérida, Yucatán, the designers collaborated with weavers in Mexico City to create chairs made to be a metaphor for a "marimba" or xylophone that produced sound individually or in collaboration with strangers as a way to "activate a collective consciousness."
Years later, the pair returned to help design layouts for interactive spaces in the other parts of the museum.
Fans of their work can still experience their designs in the museum's Creative Hub, designed top-to-bottom by the duo. Located on the first level of the Martin Building, the more than 5,000 square foot space is for sparking a visitor's imagination through a variety of hands-on artmaking exercises and guided prompts.
And while we're on the topic of beautiful chairs...
Visitors can look forward to the opening of "Have a Seat: Mexican Chair Design Today," an interactive exhibition featuring historical works and contemporary seats designed by 22 Mexican artists represented in the museum's permanent collection. Opening Feb. 18, 2024, people will be able to design their own digital chair using software developed for the exhibition.
And for the serious furniture enthusiasts who can't wait any longer, it's worth checking out "By Design: Stories and Ideas Behind Objects," which features chairs from global designers including a sprawling Yumi Chair made of bent white ash and steel by Denver-local artist and designer Laura Kishimoto.
