Modou

Overview

Modou is a seating collection by Ron Arad for Moroso, named as a homage to the metalworker Modou who worked with him in Dakar. The pieces are made entirely by hand in Dakar, Senegal, in the M'Afrique Atelier, and each design is non-standard.

Construction

The frames are rust-proofed tubular steel wrapped with polyethylene cord, which is handwoven onto the frame. The cord is the kind traditionally used in Africa for fishing nets. The pieces stand on PVC glides.

Specifications

• Frame: rust-proofed tubular steel
• Cord: polyethylene, woven by hand
• Glides: PVC
• Versions: monochrome and multicolour
• Made in: Dakar, Senegal

A homage to a Dakar metalworker

Modou is the name Ron Arad chose for his collection, in homage to the metalworker Modou, who worked with him in Dakar and gave him the chance to develop his prototype. Arad gives Modou's work the chance to enter the world market, neither as an ethnic object nor as an ordinary one, but as a trip that loops around Africa.

Two metal workers, two worlds

Ron Arad and Modou are two iron makers and two metal workers, and the differences between them melt away in the making of an object that mixes two apparently far-apart worlds. The seating is woven by hand from the polyethylene cords traditionally used in Africa for fishing nets.