The new wave of French designers: the object (eco)system
Saturday 9 September —
14:00
- 14:45
The Talks — Hall 7
Description
A new wave of French designers is reaffirming, with all their creative flair, an interest in industrial object design, through a sustainable approach to manufacturing systems and close attention to scenarios for use. Innovation is born just as much from limitations – ecological, technical, sociological – which are approached as adding value, and not the other way around, as from interdisciplinary dialogue. Here, we offer a ping-pong of ideas around this subject between Alexis Georgacopoulos, Director of the Ecal, Constance Rubini, Director of the Madd Bordeaux, Athime de Crecy, Arthur Fosse, and Samuel Perhirin, designers, and Anne-France Berthelon, a journalist and consultant.
Nos partenaires : Material Bank
Participants
Constance RubiniDirector - Musée des Arts Décoratifs et du Design de Bordeaux
Passage - Arthur Fosse & Samuel PerhirinDesigners & Co-founders - Passage
Alexis GeorgacopoulosDirector- ECAL
Athime de CrécyDesigner & Rising Talent Awards France - Maison&Objet
Anne-France BerthelonJournalist
Constance Rubini
Director - Musée des Arts Décoratifs et du Design de Bordeaux
After a career in the art market in France and England, Constance Rubini joined the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1999. There, she organized a variety of exhibitions, including Jean Royère, décorateur à Paris (Decorator in Paris) (1999-2000), Nobody’s perfect, by Gaetano Pesce (2002-2003), Inga Sempe (2003), and Dessiner le design (Sketching out design) (2009-10), which brought together the biggest names in international design around the theme of the manual and digital creative process. In 2010, she was named General Curator of the International Design Biennale in Saint-Etienne and Curator of the exhibition entitled La Ville mobile (The mobile city). From 2004 to 2010, she was Editor-in-Chief of the research and design publication Azimuts. A design historian, she became a Professor of Humanities at the Ecole des Arts décoratifs in Paris, a Lecturer at Sciences Po within Bruno Latour’s map-making program, and is now involved with the ECAL in Lausanne. She has been the Director of the Madd-Bordeaux since 2013. Named as a Knight of Arts and Letters, she is also a member of the National Design Council (CNDes).
Passage - Arthur Fosse & Samuel Perhirin
Designers & Co-founders - Passage
Arthur Fosse (1997) and Samuel Perhirin (1996) form a creative duo based in Paris. They met at the ECAL (École Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne, Switzerland) during their industrial design studies. Before this, Samuel had obtained his diploma from Ecole Boulle in product design. Following their studies, Arthur worked for a year at the Musée des Arts décoratifs et du Design de Bordeaux with Constance Rubini and Mathieu Lehanneur on the staging of the “Playground” exhibition. Samuel, on the other hand, worked alongside Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, an experience that allowed him to take part in developing furniture as well as larger-scale projects. Arthur then joined the Parisian gallery Gismondi as Creative Director, while Samuel supported the development of furniture collections for the Tectona brand. Enriched by their individual experiences, Arthur and Samuel came back together in 2022 in Paris and decided to establish the Passage brand. In September of that year, they presented their first collection of furniture and textile items at Clavé Fine Art Gallery in Paris. In March 2023, the Musée des Arts décoratifs et du Design de Bordeaux acquired their la grande perche (the big pole) lamp, which was a recognition of their growing fame and their creative approach.
Alexis Georgacopoulos
Director- ECAL
Founded in 1821, ECAL/Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne (The Cantonal Art Institute of Lausanne) regularly appears among the top 10 art and design universities in the world (ranked 5th on the Dezeen Hot List 2016). Alexis Georgacopoulos received a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design in 1999. He took the position of Director of ECAL in July 2011. For him, knowledge of the art and design fields comes through the close ties between learning and practice. He launched several partnerships with international institutions in management, technology, and innovation while maintaining creativity as this institution’s guiding principle. He has also been recognized by Wallpaper* magazine as one of the “100 most influential personalities in the world of design”.
Athime de Crécy
Designer & Rising Talent Awards France - Maison&Objet
A young creative specializing in industrial design, Athime explores the form and function of everyday objects along with the systems of production that surround them. Persuaded that the urgent need for energetically frugal products is already seeing the emergence of a new aesthetic and way of living, he works to remove preconceived construction from everyday objects, thus perfecting the synergy of their intended use, as well as their symbolic function. Athime studied design at the Ecole cantonale d’art de la ville de Lausanne (ECAL) in Switzerland. Once he graduated and returned to Paris in 2017, he was immediately noticed by Philippe Starck, who recognized a budding talent in him and invited him to join his team to become, at age 21, one of his closest design assistants. After five years working with the most prestigious global furnishing and lighting firms on large-scale industrial projects, while continuing to produce items independently, Athime decided to fully dedicate his time to his own business in early 2022, so he could focus on his unique vision of design and of the objects he imagines. He currently works and lives in Paris.
Anne-France Berthelon
Journalist
Free-lance by addiction to out-of-the-box thinking, nomadic by passion and profession, Anne-France Berthelon is a journalist, critic, design curator and creative consultant in communication strategy. A fan of the zigzags of life, this former language student/stylist/editor/trend analyst likes above all to observe the ecosystem of design, architecture, art, fashion and communication at 360° in order to decipher the smallest micro movements. Her greatest luxuries? Curiosity, and the encounters and conversations that ensue, as well as the time, absolutely incompressible, of immersions in places and ideas.