A video filmed at a New York art exhibit is being misrepresented as a new airplane seat concept
An airplane approaches for landing in Lisbon, Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. In a video spreading online, a woman positions herself on all fours in a structure resembling a chair. But it does not show a concept for new airline seats, as some have claimed. It is from an art exhibit in New York City. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
CLAIM: A video of a woman positioning herself upside down in a chair-like object, her arms resting in stirrups and her knees on the seat, shows a concept for new airplane seats.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The structure is an artwork that was part of an exhibition at a New York City gallery earlier this year. It was created by Swedish artist Anna Uddenberg.
THE FACTS: A video from the exhibition is being misrepresented online, with social media users falsely claiming it shows how airline passengers might one day fly.
In the video clip, a woman dressed in clothes resembling a flight attendant, her hair slicked back into a bun, climbs into a futuristic looking chair. She positions herself upside down on her stomach, her arms reaching through stirrups and her knees resting on the seat so she is on all fours. Another person then buckles her arms into the stirrups.
“Airlines are trying to add these seats - calling it more efficient - saving space and fitting a lot more people,” reads one tweet sharing the clip.
But there are no plans for passengers to be jetting around the world in such seats. Uddenberg, a Swedish artist based in Berlin, created them for a piece titled “Premium Economy.” The piece was part of an exhibition at the Meredith Rosen Gallery on New York City’s Upper East Side this past spring.
Opening night of the show featured a live performance, according to a press release about the exhibit. Multiple posts on Uddenberg’s Instagram profile show “Premium Economy” and the women who interacted with it. Photos of the piece also appear on the Meredith Rosen Gallery website.
“Pulling from the aesthetics of airline seats, hospital architecture and hotel design, the sculptures express a hyper-functionality inaccessible to human use,” the press release states.
Asked about the false claims spreading online, Meredith Rosen, owner of the gallery, told The Associated Press in an email: “This is definitely not true! It is an artwork!” Uddenberg did not respond to a request for comment.
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.