50% OFF collection
First project by What’s Wrong Duo, 50% OFF is at the intersection of furniture, sculpture, and experimental design, the project explores how ideas are born, deconstructed, and reassembled through material exploration and creative tension.
The work began with a single, pure form: the cross-section of an imagined technical element. Initially a symbol of useful creativity within a fictional world, this form became both a conceptual starting point and a practical tool. By translating this abstract geometry into clay, wood, and composite materials, we sought to observe how form resists, fractures, and transforms through process. Very quickly, our “pure” form was disrupted—fragmented, combined with other materials—opening up paradoxes, ruptures, and unexpected connections. What emerged was less an object than an allegory: a study of how creative processes evolve from the very moment they are conceived.
The title, 50% OFF, reflects this journey. On the surface, it references consumer culture and the language of discounts, but it also points to a deeper observation: in any creative process, only fragments of the initial idea remain. The exhibition asks whether this incompleteness is not a loss, but a form of knowledge—a fertile space where new meanings can emerge.
Through this collaboration, we explore how disciplines and perspectives meet and collide. Based in Zurich and Bucharest, our practices are rooted in different contexts and traditions, which the project embraces as generative forces. By working across geographies and techniques, we aim to position the project not only within formal exploration, but also within broader cultural questions: how do creative processes reflect the imperfections of human experience? How can fragments, ruptures, or discarded elements hold as much value as the final object?
The initial outcomes of 50% OFF were presented in Bucharest in May and June 2025. They included several pieces—sculptures and furniture (console, stools, chair, lamps, wall pieces, etc.)—accompanied by process videos, photographs, and materials.
The project exists between exhibition and research. It invites audiences to encounter not finished objects, but forms in progress—marked by their process and rich with narrative. Visitors are invited not to consume, but to observe: to see how forms unravel, how materials resist, how paradoxes emerge, and how, from what remains, something unexpected can take shape.
At its core, 50% OFF is a reflection on failure, resilience, and transformation. It invites us to value not only the final result, but also the unstable, imperfect, and fragmented path that leads to it. In a world driven by performance and perfection, the project suggests that what remains—broken lines, blended materials, paradoxes—is not the residue of failure, but the starting point of new imagination.