Benches in public spaces play a role of islands, which one can use to stop, take a rest from swimming in this ocean of information(see "Piercing through the data cloud" work of mine). They divide space into zones, create additional places for contemplation, create 'common ground" for the people to feel a part of the community, to get closer.
Though is a gallery space indeed public? It is open to the public with a given schedule of working hours and a custodian guarding the works, in theory anyone can come. Though people are visiting contemporary galleries, those white cubes not to be in unity as a society, but rather to contemplate artworks. Brian O'Doherty in his "Inside the white cube: The Ideology of Gallery Space" argues how such a minimalist by thought space, clean lines, white walls is shaping the by creating a controlled environment that influences both artist and the viewer. It demands a certain reverence and contemplation, positioning the artwork as a kind of sacred object. And for that moment of contemplation I would like to provide a viewing point, a perspective, a new system of coordinates that does not operate on its own but rather serves a purpose. A bench. Bench being a bridge between the spectator and art. A bridge that connects people in a microcosm of a tram stop. At the gallery.