ABREHAM

Gabata stems from research into the Ethiopian origins of ABREHAM, who, whilst exploring memories and images from the past, came across Gabata, an ancient strategy game popular in Ethiopia and Eritrea: a wooden board carved with rows of hollows filled with seeds or pebbles, where the aim is to capture the opponent’s pieces. Even before the rules, he was struck by the hypnotic pattern of the aligned hollows and the social dimension of the game, played outdoors whilst chatting. From this insight, an evolutionary chair emerges: with a single gesture, the backrest reclines and becomes a small table, revealing 18 hollows ready for play. It is a retrospective vision: the way in which ABREHAM would have liked to play so as not to lose touch with his roots. Gabata embodies his research into the ‘living piece of furniture’, a product capable of changing function and triggering a physical and conscious interaction.