Paererewā: The 1,000-Year Bench Project.

The mission was launched Friday 2nd Might, on the Aotearoa Artwork Honest to a packed viewers of over 100 individuals. The preliminary concept was from Aera Basis’s Derek Handley who spoke on the occasion concerning the disconnection we’ve from ourselves and the way expertise is altering our world so dramatically. “Should you suppose the distinction between the final 1,000 years was important, will probably be nothing on what we expertise within the subsequent 1,000 with expertise embedded into our brains, even into our eyes. Sitting on a Bench, I hope might be a easy act of being human, reminding us of who we are.”  

Paererewā—the 1,000-year bench mission—has been launched to create thresholds between the on a regular basis and one thing deeper. 

UK Architect of Nebbia, Madhav Kidao, visited New Zealand to talk on the Auckland Artwork Honest alongside Johnson, Handley and Fukutake.

The mission learns from the well-known Benesse Artwork Web site Naoshima, began by Hideki Fukutake’s grandfather. “Public seating could appear easy, but it profoundly shapes how we interact with our surroundings,” Fukutake stated. “Paererewā continues the philosophy of place-based impression that has outlined tasks like Benesse Artwork Web site Naoshima. Every Pae marks a threshold—an intersection of time, historical past, and human expertise, inviting connection between the previous, current and future.” 

The mission will see the creation of 1,000 locations to take a seat or relaxation, every designed to endure for 1,000 years throughout Aotearoa. Every Pae promotes a location for reflection on long-term considering. A charitable belief devoted to commemorating individuals, tales, locations, and necessary historic occasions, Paererewā brings collectively main designers, makers, artists, historians, tangata whenua, and a singular mannequin of place-based philanthropy to create a community of locations of reflection all through Aotearoa New Zealand.

The core kaupapa is encouraging long-term considering and reflection. Anybody can provoke a Pae, however a core a part of the mannequin is a place-based philanthropic mannequin that helps the Pae into the longer term with earnings ceaselessly paid to a volunteer group to look after the bench.“I’ve organised lots of of volunteer tasks to look after benches, playgrounds or areas which were forgotten about,” Johnson stated. “The place-based philanthropic mannequin for Paererewā, I hope, will assist the Pae and the realm round or not it’s cared for within the long-term future. That is a permanent mannequin of giving and a brand new technique to depart a bequest in your will for one thing very significant. 

By establishing a sustainable funding mechanism, we be certain that these areas stay cared for much into the longer term.”Paererewā might be unfold all through the nation, from city websites to the distant backcountry. Many might be in websites of historic, cultural, ecological or geological significance.

Every Pae is conceived by way of a rigorous curatorial course of, making certain site-specificity, cultural significance and materials sturdiness. The impartial Curatorial Board, chaired by Heather Harris—former COO of the Australian Museum and Director of Collections on the V&A Museum—ensures the integrity and imaginative and prescient of the mission. The board additionally contains Objectspace Director Kim Paton, a number one voice in modern design. ”Chairs and benches are among the many most elementary design objects,” Paton stated. “They carry tales of how we dwell, the ways in which we worth perform and kind, and the means by which we collect as communities. Paererewā builds on this custom, creating areas which can be each sensible and poetic—public locations with deep which means that invite us to pause.” 

Paererewā has established an preliminary panel of designers from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines, together with architects, artists, craftspeople, industrial designers, ceramicists and panorama architects. The panel, created with curatorial recommendation from Objectspace, contains rising, early-career and extremely senior designers. 

The preliminary panel of 25 continues to increase and contains: Māori artist Carin Wilson, recipient of the 2025 New Zealand Arts Laureate, recognized for his cross-disciplinary work in design and furniture-making; Nebbia, a world structure studio that was supported by the British Council to be concerned within the mission as a gesture of friendship to Aotearoa; Jaime Jenkins, a sculptor predominantly working with clay, primarily based in Mount Maunganui; Multidisciplinary steel furnishings maker Leon McKay, who established high studio SAINTLEO. 

Paererewā is backed by STILL—a neighborhood of exceptional companies and cultural enterprises from Aotearoa, New Zealand. STILL embraces new methods of seeing the world and helps initiatives that amplify the human expertise, together with the World of WearableArt, Nationwide Candles and a spread of panorama and design firms. Anybody can suggest a Pae location.

For a website to maneuver ahead, it requires the backing of a lead donor, sponsor, landowner or neighborhood chief. Because of the help of STILL, plenty of charitable websites will progress every year in partnership with neighborhood teams. 

To be taught extra or counsel a location click on right here.