Seats of power

French President Emmanuel Macron is a democrat, but the golden throne he is sitting on in this picture makes him look like a king. It shows how chairs still contribute to the staging of politics to this day.

Muammar al-Gaddafi, the former leader of Libya, was for decades considered one of the most powerful men in Africa. Famous for his extravagant style, he sometimes had to go without basic luxury items on his trips abroad. At a meeting with the Tanzanian President at the African Union summit in Uganda in 2010, he was offered only a plastic chair.

In the Middle Ages, the man in this seat was often more powerful than the emperors and kings. Today, the Pope is still one of the most influential men in the world — after all, he is the spiritual leader of nearly 1.3 billion people. This was the throne that accompanied John Paul II on his visit to Zagreb in Croatia in 1994.

At the end of the 19th century, comfortable adjustable chairs became fashionable in the US. But relaxation had its price. At the time, rocking chairs like this one designed by George Wilson were only affordable for the rich. Such chairs therefore symbolized a form of power and influence at the beginning of modern times.

At first glance, the circular blue seats look quite simple. But when the UN Security Council meets, representatives of the world's most powerful countries take their seats. But the five permanent members, China, Russia, USA, France and the UK, have veto rights in this otherwise democratic-looking institution.

Even a secret agent sometimes has to sit, and Mies van der Rohe's Knoll Barcelona Chair (also called "MR90") is the seat of choice for 007. The German-American architect created this comfortable piece for the German Pavilion at the 1929 World Fair held in the Catalan city. Nearly 80 years later, it still has enough style to feature in the James Bond film "Casino Royale" (2006).

Few women have ever been in seats of power since Antiquity. Fortunately, that is changing today — even though we are still far from having achieved equal rights. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, IMF head Christine Lagarde and Ivanka Trump, the current US president's daughter and adviser, are seen here discussing the issue of gender parity at the 2017 W20 summit in Berlin.

This artwork by Mozambican designer Gonçalo Mabunda is titled "www.crise.com." With his throne of recycled weapons, the artist however does not want to draw attention to a website, but to the victims of the civil war that tore his home country apart from 1975 to 1992. Powerful clan chiefs in Mozambique were directly responsible for up to 900,000 victims of violence and hunger.

This photo of the meeting room of the FIFA Executive Committee in Zurich has a dystopian feel to it — perhaps fittingly so, considering the corruption scandals that have rocked the highest body of the world football association. In 2016, it was dissolved and replaced by the FIFA Council. This, however, didn't restrict much the power detained by the people in these black leather armchairs.