FRANCE / Paris: Designer's Days 2011 report | Modem Mag

Festival

After four days spent walking along both sides of Paris’ river to see the design of today, Modem gives you its report in pictures.

From the 16th to the 20th June, design professionals and amateurs could visit showrooms, galeries and cultural centres set up especially for the occasion.

The eleventh edition of Designer’s Days, launched by Frédéric Mitterand} saw even more people than last year frequenting and participating.

With 73 spots on its tour, this year’s programme presented a varied selection and, on the theme of Conversations, proposed audacious exchanges between designers, brands, spaces and objects.

Concluded by Lyne Cohen Solal at the Théâtre du Merveilleux, Designer’s Days 2011 distinguished itself particularly this year for its rich programme of international events.

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Gallery S. Bensimon
Matter of time by Dutch Invertuals

<sld(bensimon)|left> The Bensimon Gallery presented an exhibition of designers coming from and working in the Netherlands. The theme’s origin was symbolic: the town of Eindhoven, following excavations, saw a resurgence in the 600 year old wood which had served as the foundations for its walls.

Wendy Plomp assembled the collective made up of young designers Dutch Invertuals, who engaged in a real exercise of style with this noble material rich with history. Inspired by the aesthetics and intrinsic quality of the wood, it’s the concept of time, in its measure and usage which can be seen expressed in the pieces.

The scenography of Daphna Isaacs & Laurens Manders was able to emphasise the qualities of each project, half scientific experience, half return to the past.

Gallery S. Bensimon
111 rue de Turenne 75003 Paris
www.bensimon.com

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Espace Modem
Le goût de la conversation by Frédérique Bastien et Anne Xiradakis

<sld(modem_annexiradakis)|right>Designer Anne Xiradakis and pastry chef Frédérique Bastien, invited by Cendrine de Susbielle, concocted an exhibition/conversation, which creates an experience mixing tableware, taste and gesture. In the Espace Modem, a huge table presented the crockery of Anne Xiradaxis, functional, minimalist and experimental.

Combinatorial courses, unpredictable dishes and culinary experiences were on display, and even carried out during the Café Ephémères, tasting discussions around the designers and their creations.

For the exhibition’s opening, Frédérique Bastien had conceived a gluttonous installation as a new approach to presentation.

Espace Modem
25 rue Yves Toudic 75010 Paris
www.modemonline.com

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Institut Suédois
Jeunes pousses by Katti Hoflin, Magdalena Aberg and Ebba Theorell

A dive into the heart of Swedish design addressed to the world of childhood. Playful objects, soft and educational, born out of exchanges between children and designers.

Institut Suédois
11 rue Payenne 75003 Paris
www.institutsuedois.fr

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Boffi Paris
Conversations Savoureuses by Martine Brétillot

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Kitchen-wise, it was gluttony which prevailed. The conversation was held between fried frangipane ‘tartinettes’ perfumed with rum and iced. Seven conversations of delicacies exhibited in seven cuisine stagings of ideas, emotions and sensations making the everyday quite formidable.

Boffi Paris
234 Bd Saint Germain 75007 Paris
www.boffiparis.com

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Boffi Bains
Conversation entre eau et lumière by A+A Cooren

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On the bathroom side, poetry was in the subtle marriage of water and light. A variation on the play of these two elements brilliantly imagined by A+A Cooren, an illuminated conversation.

Boffi Bains
12 rue de la Chaise 75007 Paris
www.boffi-bains.com

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Tai Ping
Pieces de conversation

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Tai Ping seized the Designer’s Days occasion to launch with great pomp his new collection in an installation thought up by Maurizio Galante. The exhibition rolled out faux marble carpets, as realistic as they were smooth.

The trompe l’oeil motif reprised on a giant rabbit, on an armchair and on a series of pouffes, challenges what the eye sees and all sense of logic. The smooth, soft, sleek marble falls in line with the interconnecting pieces in an ambience of padded luxury.

Tai Ping
Hôtel de Livry 2, rue de Montalembert 75007 Paris
www.taipingcarpets.com

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Kartell
Design Speaking

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A colourful installation for the Kartell showroom, which showcased objects that told their own stories. Discussions from chair to chair and from table to lamp, giant comical speech bubbles filled the space and suggested an insight into the imagination of the objects and their little secrets. The scenography conceived by Ferruccio Laviani offered a voice to contemporary design icons.

Kartell
242 boulevard Saint-Germain 75007 Paris
www.kartell.it

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Saint Louis
Les Confidents by Philippe Riehling, les V8, Nathalie Nierengarten, Patrick Neu and Thibault Algayer

Eight designers set up around a beer and conversed. The result: a nice exhibition where crystal responded to the hop plant.

Saint-Louis
13 rue Royale 75008 Paris

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Molteni & C Dada
Talking with Scarpa by Constance Guisset

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The emblematic flagship store Molteni organised a conversation between the designs of the couple Afra and Tobia Scarpa with contemporary furniture designs edited by the brand. A harmonious exchange between architecture and furniture; between history and timelessness.

The scenography, signed by Constance Guisset made of light lamps floating through spaces, was able to emphasise this encounter without disordering it. It was awarded the Designer’s Days best scenography award.

Molteni & C Dada
6 rue des Saint Pères 75007 Paris
www.molteni.it

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Merci
210x297 mm

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15 designers associated to 15 artisans have created 15 pieces. The project launched by David des Moutis, Emilie Colin Garros and Philippine Lemaire was exhibited in the luminous space of Merci. Stimulated by the richness of the Rhine Alpine craftsmanship, the project founders united around them a team of young designers who each chose a local artisan with whom to collaborate.

Out of these fruitful collaborations were born design pieces in which the mastering of technique is sublimated in its association with an innovative idea.

Association 210x297mm chez Merci
111 boulevard Beaumarchais 75003 Paris
www.210x297mm.fr

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Cappellini
Conversation with Walt Disney

For Designer's Days, Disney was invited by Cappellini for a collection which was colourful and somewhat regressive.

Cappellini
242 bis boulevard Saint-Germain 75007 Paris
www.cappellini.it

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Galerie BSL
Hosting Parasites by Kathy Ludwig

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Béatrice Saint Laurent seized the opportunity of Designer’s Days to present to the Parisian public the work of Kathy Ludwig, a young German designer based in the Netherlands. Halfway between jewellery, ornaments and torture instruments, the three series of objects, Hosting Parasites, presented in delicate caskets, offer a sensitive and disturbing exhibition of the body.

Galerie BSL
23 rue Charlot 75003 Paris
www.galeriebsl.com

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Fr66
Conversations

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Fr66, invited to participate in the Designer’s Days programme, brought together the works of six designers to demonstrate the fact that a good conversation is done in twos and sat down. The six pieces on display are each an invitation to sit down and comfortable enter into a discussion. On Konstantin Grcic’s sofa, or brought together by Bless’s Extended cardigan, or even trying out the Siamese barstools designed especially for the exhibition by David Dubois, visitors can ensconce themselves for a moment to talk about design with Maryline Brustolin, the director of the gallery.

FR66
25 rue du Renard 75004 Paris
www.fr66.com

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Cassina
Confidences par Pool

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Set up in little sceneries, great design classics can be re-discovered from an unexpected approach. In an entrechat, as a totem or a giant mobile, mythic furniture pieces from Charlotte Perriand, Gio Ponti and Le Corbusier are interpreted by the young design duo Pool.

Cassina
236 boulevard Saint Germain 75007 Paris
www.cassina.com

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Sèvres Cité de la céramique
À petits pas by Jeannette Montgomery Barron and Martine Bedin

Sèvres Cité de la céramique exhibition brings together, through six works, Jeannette Montgomery Barron and Martine Bedin. One photographs still lives, the other draws vases; out of the collaboration of these two talents was born the project, À petits pas.

Six vases were presented on a simple, round table, each vase holding a picture of flowers. The contained and the container come together in this collaborative and poetic work.

Sèvres - Cité de la Céramique
Galerie de la Manufacture 4 Place André Malraux 75001 Paris
www.sevresciteceramique.fr

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Institut Polonais
Unpolished, Young Polish design

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Having been displayed in Milan, young Polish design left to conquer the French capital with its exhibition Unpolished 7. The presentation emphasises a design scene, which is young, dynamic and still to be discovered in Europe.

Through a dozen projects, from furniture to crockery to flooring and lighting, Polish design proved its inventiveness and eclecticism.

Institut Polonais au Pavillon de l'Arsenal
21 boulevard Morland 75004 Paris
www.institutpolonais.fr

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Christofle
Raconte-moi une histoire by the students of Ecal

This year, the luxury silversmith’s house presented a collection full of youth and freshness, a result of a workshop organised by Xavier Perrenoud for the Ecal Luxury and Design masters.

Under the theme of the birth gift, students created objects mixing qualities and savoir-faire from the Christofle house and playing with the world childhood. In a colourful scenography, the 14 projects were on display and nicely contrasted with traditional pieces of silver.

Christofle
9 rue Royale 75008 Paris
www.christofle.com

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Maxalto
Voca[lyse] by François Brument

François Brument’s installation transformed sound in volumes, in movements and in spaces, and created a real interaction between visitors and pieces presented.

Maxalto
43 rue du Bac 75007 Paris
www.maxalto.it

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Maison du Danemark
Objets Ordinaires by Cecilie Manz

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Motivated by a spirit of research and experimentation, Cecilie Manz presents a series of pieces which question objects and everyday usage. In an effervescence of materials and techniques, she invites us into a universe where design surprises.

Maison du Danemark
142 avenue des Champs Elysées 75008 Paris
www.maisondudanemark.dk

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Silvera & B&B Italia
L'art en regard by Grégoire Alexandre
and Silvera Poliform
Le grand déballage - du rationnel à la démesure by Francesca Avossa

<sld(silvera2)|right>An unexpected conversation where objects are exhibited in a surprising way, giving a new point of view to the object. Grégoire Alexandre has found how, with humour or ingeniousness, to put in place a discourse which stepped outside of the simplistic framework of function or comfort. Between photographs, videos and oblique sculptures, the emotion of the shape which has the final word.

In a succession of sketches and incongruous scenarios, Francesca Avossa brought to life the new showroom, Silvera Poliform. Piling up, overflowing, pouring out, the great jumble in the showroom diverts and surprises and offers a new poetic and living vision of an interior in complete transformation.

Silvera Poliform
33 rue du Bac 75007 Paris
Silvera Wagram
39 avenue de Wagram 75017 Paris
www.silvera.fr / www.poliform.it

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Hermès
Jeu de chaises by Denis Montel

In immense wooden structures, suspended by cords, chairs are balanced and unveiled beneath all their stitching.

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Hermès
17 rue de Sèvres 75006 Paris
www.hermes.com

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Pianos Pleyel
Au delà du piano Michele de Lucchi

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Michele de Lucchi imagined for Pleyel an exceptional piano, naturally followed by a furniture collection. Drawing on the savoir-faire of piano manufacturing, exploiting the richness of materials, going “beyond the piano”, de Lucchi created a furniture series which translated through their harmonious forms the quality of discussion and exchanges with the artisans that made them.

Les Pianos Pleyel
252 bis, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré 75008 Paris
www.pleyel.fr

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Bbath
Nomade et transformiste by Fabrice and Didier Knoll

Bbath pleasantly mixed bathrooms and places to live, functions and spaces, and invented for Designer’s Days a moving bathroom.

B'Bath
108 bis rue du Cherche Midi 75006 Paris
www.bbath.fr

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Poltrona Frau
L’intelligence des mains par le département R&D de Poltrona Frau

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The shopping windows of the showroom were transformed into the brand’s armchair workshops. Visitors could appreciate the expertise of craftsmen, and discover what is hidden behind the comfortable seats.

Poltrona Frau
29 rue du Bac 75007 Paris
www.poltronafrau.it

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L’ Éclaireur
Espace Sévigné by Amine Eon Amharech

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A space which asked questions and proposed quite evidently topics of conversations between the visitors and their sensations.

L'éclaireur Espace Sévigné
40 rue de Sévigné 75003 Paris
www.leclaireur.com

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Puiforcat
Fine(s) Lame(s) by Gabriele Pezzini

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The chef Pierre Gagnaire and the designer Gabriele Pezzini present a new line of knives conceived together, in a scenography which reveals the origins of the project.

Puiforcat
48 avenue Gabriel 75008 Paris
www.puiforcat.com

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Saazs
VS- by Trafik

A luminous installation of architecture and light, interactive and moving, which throws the visitor into a graphic and sensual experience.

Saazs
4 passage Saint Avoye 75003 Paris
www.saazs.com

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Charles Zana
Conversazione tra i mestri : Michele de Lucchi and Andrea Branzi

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Charles Zana offers a new facet from the two Italian masters for us to discover: their drawings and scale models.

Charles Zana
13 rue de Seine 75006 Paris
www.zana.fr

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The eleventh edition of Designer’s Days was concluded on Monday 20th June with a grand soirée to mark the occasion of the Designer’s Days prizes:

The prize for design promotion was awarded to Pierre Keller (ECAL).

The Design Company prize was awarded to E. and R. Bouroullec of Canapé Ploum for Ligne Roset.

The Designer’s Days prize for the best scenography was attributed to
Talking with Scarpa by Constance Guisset for Molteni & C Dada.