The J39 Portraits Tine Fischer

"Our J39 “People’s chairs” are vintage and were found at an auction many years ago. They are originally blue, and so many of our friends and acquaintances ask if we don't want to sell them, but that will never happen. I love them deeply if you can love dead things.

The People’s Chair is, in many ways, a kind of "people's property". It is a chair that many of us have grown up with it in our schools, libraries, churches, and many private homes. For me, the chair carries the story of the Danish welfare state most beautifully. Quality is not reserved for the few but the many. We are all invited along, and the chair thus represents a form of collective narrative and memory that lives in us across our different backgrounds. There are hundreds of “The People’s Chair” at the Film School and the Academy of Arts but also in community centres nationwide. It belongs to all of us.

We have chosen this chair for our home for many reasons; it lasts over time, has a history, you can sit on it for many hours around a dinner table, and I think it is beautiful.

I am an involuntary collector. As a child, I collected everything. Capsules, glass balls, beads, books, stones, shoes, films, letters, notes, notebooks, clothes, you name it. Once I get into a relationship with a thing, it feels like it becomes animated, and then I can't let it go again. And that's why I have items today that I bought when I was 15. When I started making money and got my own home, I also started collecting furniture, design, and art. I don't collect systematically and not at all as an investment; I like objects that carry meaning, are beautifully thought out, aesthetically designed and stay in my life over time.”