So now is that time of year. In which one is really seriously winter-weary. In which people on the street stare at each other from pasty faces with empty eyes. The winter is getting long – the longing for summer is great.
There are objects that belong to summer – and one now has his own podcast, which not only satisfies the longing for brighter days, but also makes you think – and after all, that never hurts. We’re talking about the Monobloc, that (mostly) white plastic chair made from a single piece, which sets off a whole cascade of associations here in Germany. Because let’s be honest: who doesn’t think of Schöller ice cream flags or Calippo, mini golf, campsites, fries in the clubhouse or sun-warmed washed concrete when they think of the chair?
As an everyday object, the monobloc is not only widespread in Germany, but worldwide. It is said to have been sold over a billion times. Which, from a quantitative point of view alone, makes it a phenomenon that is worth exploring in more detail.
That’s exactly what journalist and documentary filmmaker Hauke Wendler does in his podcast monobloc. On the trail of a billion plastic chairs. It’s a project worth listening to on many levels. This also has to do with the fact that Wendler and his team do a lot of what makes podcasts exciting – and unique. There is the element of searching for clues, which actually always works, but also the calmness of dealing intensively with an off-the-beaten-track topic. Six episodes of 30 minutes each for a plastic chair is a lot – even if it’s supposed to be the best-selling piece of furniture in the world. And because Wendler originally approached the monobloc in a documentary film, listeners in the podcast get a look behind the scenes of his journalistic work – from phases of self-doubt to contacting protagonists to visa difficulties in Uganda.
A piece of design history
But of course it is above all the chair itself that makes the podcast worth listening to. Or the associated multifaceted nature and the social issues that can be tied to it. In Hamburg, Wendler asks passers-by for their opinion and usually receives the answer that this is a horrible piece of furniture. Not sustainable, cheap, unstable. This is opposed to the narrative threads that Wendler opens up in the following episodes: the monobloc as a piece of design history, the monobloc as the pride of three Italian brothers who base their fortune on the production of the plastic chair.
But Wendler does not remain in Eurocentrism, but travels to other continents and sheds light on the dimensions of global inequality – as well as the arrogance of industrialized countries. Because what is seen as junk in Germany offers the possibility of getting an affordable wheelchair in Uganda. And in India, a major producer of monobloc chairs asks the German journalist what’s wrong with the fact that people in India like to sit on this chair. In Brazil, on the other hand, a broken plastic chair is worth a lot to garbage collectors.
The podcast paints a thought-provoking picture of a chair that – uniting its role across continent borders – stands for social participation.
There’s really only one thing missing from all of this. The view of German society and its contempt for poor people, which is also expressed in the condescending look at the monobloc. And the podcast would also have deserved a cover with a little more charm than the NDR design – although: Actually, the inconspicuous fits here perfectly for once.