FLOORBNB:
Apartment Exhibition
Curated by Jiatan and Judith

The idea of Floorbnb came from a move. Extending from the nostalgia of the old home and the unfamiliar feeling with the new room, Jiatan and Judith made Floorbnb, an extreme site-specific exhibition. Held in a subleased apartment, this show examined the blurred boundary between public and domestic spaces.

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The title, as a parody of Airbnb, suggesting a paradoxical meaning that an subleased apartment unit represents: If an Airbnb room is a private room made public, then Floorbnb is a privatized and personalized public space. By adopting public signs in the home space, the show broke down the relaxed atmosphere realized through modern interior design. Though this manipulation, the apartment’s status and the authority of the landlord are also exposed.

 

Floorbnb also questions the renewed meaning of home, which is more fluid for temporary residents. Confronted by an unfamiliar environment and limited in time and wealth, temporary residents utilize and personalize their home space reflects a greater dynamics. For instance, In Space in-between, a bedroom in a closet, the audience could observe how a cultural in-between state can create intimacy and belonging in an otherwise alienated space.

 

By challenging the traditional functions of the subleased apartment and equipment inside, Floorbnb attempts to construct a critical domestic space. It tries to provide an artistic, humorous, yet strong response to social topics like immigration and the shared economy. As an experimental exhibition, Floorbnb also means to renew the curatorial approach in daily life contexts. Retreating from questioning the boundary between art and life, Floorbnb attempts to reveal, even resolve problems in life through art.