RLF - The right life in the wrong one

The yearning for alternative social, political and economical paradigms is currently materialising itself in uprisings everywhere. This zeitgeist sets the discursive context and activist standpoint for RLF. RLF is an enterprise that strives to overcome Capitalism with the means of Capitalism: protest is manifested in luxury products and their consumption is transformed into a revolutionary act. RLF is named after Theodor W. Adorno’s dictum: Es gibt kein richtiges Leben im falschen [there is no right life in the wrong one]. RLF however contrives to show evidence of the contrary: how to implement the right life in the wrong one. 

As core product the enterprise offers a share in a movement, which can be brought to expression by purchasing and using its products: ten design objects serve as equipment for the resistance, offer insignia for identification and distinction of a community that is thinking in the realm of possibility, whilst questioning social reality. The designs derive from blueprints by the artist Mikael Mikael, who inscribes these luxury products with the explicit message Show you are not afraid By gold-plating the materials and surfaces of the design objects the message is sealed; but becomes visible yet again by actual use of the products.

The RLF product range includes furniture and accessories for the living room and dining room (sofa, coffee table, carpet, bookcase, wallpaper, dining table and chairs, a tea set), as well as a fashion collection (trainers and overalls). Next to in-house production, products were created in cooperation with brands like adidas, Artek, KPM Berlin, Nils Holger Moormann and the wallpaper factory Gebr. Rasch, also collaborated with renowned designers like Konstantin Grcic, Achim Haigis, Axel Kufus and Kostas Murkudis.

The RLF products will be presented to the public for the first time in an exhibition that will open on August 23, 2013 at ST. AGNES, an empty nave that combines the former church’s ethereal atmosphere with its architectural brutalism. Starting Autumn 2013, the products will also be sold in temporary shops as well as through the enterprise’s website – www.rlf-propaganda.com. Suhrkamp is publishing the new novel by Friedrich von Borries on August 19, 2013, in which he describes the inception of RLF and tells the story of its founders – the activist Slavia, the marketing specialist Jan and the artist Mikael Mikael. 
 

RLF is an enterprise of Mikael Mikael, Friedrich von Borries and Slavia.
Masterplan: Mikael Mikael
Management: Friedrich von Borries
Realization + coordination: Projektbüro Friedrich von Borries
Project management: Anne Levy
Design: Moritz Ahlert
Team production: Amelie Hinrichsen, Sebastian Auray
Team exhibition: Claire Ehrhardt, Albert Herrmann, Christian Hiller, Benjamin Kasten, Nuriye Tohermes

Further information about the enterprise RLF: BUREAU N Jenni Schmitt Naunynstraße 31 10999 Berlin, Germany Phone: +49.30.62736104
Email: rlf-propaganda@bureau-n.de
www.bureau-n.de