With Paris Design Week and Maison & Objet‘s September edition ending last week it is the ideal time to keep Design daily readers updated with what the French are doing. Here is a quick round up of new products that caught Design daily’s eye.
Founded by Thibaut Van den bergh & Thomas Erber, Kolkhoze is a limited edition gallery with a very refined and material rich aesthetic. Situated in the heart of Paris at 13 boulevard Beaumarchais, the gallery represents more than forty extraordinary designers including Karen Chekerdjian, Pool, Rooms, Pierre Martinon, Francesco Balzano and Victoria Wilmote across furniture, lighting and objects in ceramic, bronze, glass and stone. The gallery presented a group show at Maison Dentsu in Rue de Rivoli during Paris Design Week.
Martin Massé’s Monti collection for the gallery (seen at the top of the post) now involves thirteen pieces ranging from tables in subtle marbles and travertine to upholstered pieces with elm burl accents. The overall look of Massé’s collection is quite classical with some quietly Art Deco flourishes. Despite all this the shapes are elemental and totemic. For a deeper look into the beautiful work presented by the gallery take a look at their website here
Another designer who is represented by Kolkhoze is Joris Poggioli. During Paris Design Week he showed his new Eden Paradiso collection in glass, onyx, marble and rosewood (two examples are shown above). Poggioli runs his own label Youth Editions and is represented by a number of design galleries including ToolsGalerie and Theoreme Editions.
Theoreme Editions is another exciting young limited edition design gallery that represents some very inspiring talent (including Joris Poggioli whose cylindrical marble bookshelf can be seen above) such as
Emmanuelle Simon, Garnier & Linker and Services Généraux. The exquisite resin stool / side table in the foreground above is called Constantin and by Francesco Balzano. My guess is that this is made by the workshop that works on Sabine Marcellis’ sublime resin creations.
Alain Gilles designed several items for Belgian brand XL Boom including champagne buckets and candle holders and with fine stepped lips along with bookends in a smooth swooping shape. Made from cast aluminum or machined marble these items have a slight Art Deco feel.
The exhibition 1000 vases was initiated in 2018 by design platform Meet My Project. Since then it has also formed part of Dubai Design District. It’s hard to do justice to the range of vessels on display and so I have just provided three examples as a taster. The possibilities as they far too frequently say ‘are endless’. Its true with this form however as the only real prerequisite is that it holds some form of leaf, flower, stem or plant - beyond that it’s open to interpretation and to a myriad of material explorations.
Dutch designer Roderick Vos added to his body of work with ceramic specialist company Cor Unum (which means ‘One Heart’ in Latin) with his ‘Doodle’ vases. Produced in gloss white and in four unusual shades; Leaf Green, Yellow Cream, Apricot Wash and Vintage Violet (seen on the next image down) the vases have a cartoon-ish morphic quality that holds its own when empty, while being wonderfully practical when flowers are on hand.
Roderick Vos also launched a new ceramic product with Amsterdam label Pols Potten - a stool called ‘Oily Busk’ (below right). Featuring a wildly iridescent glaze, the stool has the look of something metallic and robotic which is strange given its ancient material. Obviously there is a ‘thing’ around iridescent objects at the moment because Zurich based brand Schoenstaub also released table ware in this finish (three of which are shown below left). Their Fantastic Objects 1 through 5 include an ashtray (a very rare thing these days), champagne bucket, objet d’art and tray - all in iridescent green. The pieces are made in Hungary by traditional ceramics company Zsolnay and given an eosin glaze. Eosin was developed in the 1890’s with the name coming from the Greek word ‘eos’, which means flush of dawn as the first iridescent colours were in red hues.
Design daily has been an admirer of the French label Moustache since it was founded in 2009. With designers such as Matali Crasset, Bertjan Pot, Big-Game, François Azambourg and Inga Sempé as part of their debut line up it’s no wonder this small label has always followed its own path delivering interesting, often colourful and at times rather odd pieces across furniture, lighting and decorative objects. Founded by Stéphane Arriubergé and Massimiliano Iorio, their launch imagery photographed at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris was a complete breath of fresh air as colourful contemporary works filled the dark wood panelled rooms of the museum. Finally after all these years they have opened their first Paris showroom at 17 rue Beaurepaire in the 10th arrondissement.
The Moustache showroom was designed by En Bande Organisée in collaboration with Julien Dufresne architecte, and is full of surprising ideas such as the bright orange mobile track display system and a room of formed white plaster that sort of looks like you’re in an igloo or ice cave.
In recent years Moustache have added to their already amazing portfolio of designers with Benjamin Graindorge, Ionna Vautrin, Jean Baptiste Fastrez, Clara Von Zweigbergk Dimitri Bähler and Antoine + Manuel (along with many others) enjoying the creative freedom the label has provided.
Hartô released three new products to coincide with their showroom opening; the ‘Claude’ lamp (shown below) by Guillaume Delvigne, the ‘Prosper’ sofa (on the right above) by Studio TerhedeBrüegge and the ‘Andréa’ chair by Aurélian Barby (also shown below). Delvigne’s ‘Claude’ lamp also comes in a table light version which carries on the cage-like motif. Both lamp variants are available in grey green or burgundy as well as the black shown. Barby cites mid-century Danish designs as inspiration for her Andreá dining chair and its generous solid back and arm rest does have something of the spirit of the ‘Metropolitan’ chair by Ejner Larsen & Aksel Bender Madsen.
The Visions / Perceptions exhibition was a collaboration between French label Triode Design and New York studios Calico Wallpaper, Ladies & Gentlemen Studio and glass artist, John Hogan. According to the organisers the show was about exploring the phenomena of illusory perceptions through a series of three distinct works installed in dialogue to create an environment where material realities and optical illusions mingle. While Calico Wallpaper presented new desert inspired papers from their Singing Sands collection in colours with names like Canyon, Ravine and Sierra reflecting the particular colour balance, Ladies & Gentlemen Studio presented a new mobile called ‘Moire’. The mobile is like a three-dimensional Arp artwork with soft, complex shapes overlapping and interconnecting to create new colours and shadows with the added benefit of movement. John Hogan’s work in glass is well known to followers of Future Perfect and Roll and Hill lighting but in this setting the glass items are forced to find their own way devoid of a white pedestal (a mound of sand doesn’t count!).
Shown below left is Ladies & Gentlemen Studio’s ‘Moire’ mobile with Calico Wallpaper’s ‘Singing Sands’ wallpaper in the background. To the right is Ladies & Gentlemen Studio’s ‘Equalizer’ 2-piece pendant. This fitting is available in many configurations with up to five glass spheres which are hand blown by regular collaborator and Visions / Perceptions exhibition artist John Hogan. These spheres are shown below in the ‘Chameleon’ finish which delivers a subtle colour-shift when viewed from different angles. The spheres can also be specified in smokey green or cream satin finished glass if preferred.
The next post will chart the best of London Design Week which is already in full swing. Stay tuned for some inspiring installations along with a lot of new product in what may well be the last of the truly European LDF’s.