Gallery Slott @ Salone del Milan Mobile presents Exhibition ''Préliminaires''
SALONE DEL MOBILE Milano 14-19 April 2010
Arik Levy & Mathieu Lehanneur @ Straf Design Hotel
Via San Raffaele, 3 - 20121 MILAN
24h/day
Exquise Maps : http://xm.my/UdKV | http://straf.it
metro access: M1 M3 Duomo
opening Party
Thursday April 15, 2010
6pm - 1am
matali crasset & Florence Jaffrain
@ Acquario Civico di Milano
Exquise Maps : http://xm.my/OIEp | http://acquariocivicomilano.eu
Viale Gadio, 2 - 20121 MILAN
11am to 10pm
metro access: M2 Lanza
opening party
Wednesday April 14, 2010
6pm - midnight
DJ SET & PERFORMANCE
Exquise Design | Design for pleasure
From idea to finished product our job is to orchestrate eclectic art professionals to bring you pleasurable experiences out of the ordinary. At the crossing of craftsmanship, new technologies and fresh ideas, our goal is to collectively strive for positive changes in human attitudes.
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3. In April 2010 during Milan Mobile, Gallery Slott (Paris, France) un-
veils four unique pieces of furniture : Confession, The Power of Love,
Aequorea and Belly Love. matali crasset and Florence Jaffrain will be
located at the Acquario Civico di Milano, Arik Levy and Mathieu
Lehanneur at Hotel Straf.
CONTACT “Preliminaries”:
Gallery SLOTT design at the threshold of love.
c/o Exquise Design
12, rue du Château Landon As an extension of a project on the theme of love, Slott gallery
75010 Paris, France and Exquise Design® have invited four designers to play out
Tel: +33 (0) 140 360 718
www.exquisedesign.com
their fantasies, giving shape and meaning, breathing life into their
conceptions of preliminaries. They have approached this subject
Press from different and complementary viewpoints that together offer
Michela Pelizzari a panorama of creation like no other seen before.
press@p-s.it
tel+ 39 328 884 0777 Arik Levy unveils his work on the spoken and the unspoken of
Federica Sala intimate relations with his series of installations entitled “Confes-
sala.federica@gmail.com sions” that includes, among other elements, an examination of
tel: +39 348 530 4588 the iconography of sexuality alongside a kind of modern home
confessional. As the theme of the exhibition required that contribu-
Gallerist
tions be solicited from both male and female designers in equal
Paola Bjaringer
paola@exquisedesign.com
measure, it is fascinating to observe the ways in which, by sharing
tel: +33 (0) 670 524 384 their visions, they complete and engage each other. matali cras-
set and Florence Jaffrain carry us away to underwater paradises
with their respective works “Aequorea” and “Belly Love”, creating
soft and sensual shapes that run up against Mathieu Lehanneur’s
torrid yet petrified flames in his “The Power of Love”.
Visitors will also be struck by the singular visions of the four
designers, each of which offers a completely different approach
to objects. With his Confessions, Arik Levy makes the object a
tool for communication, standing in for the fears and concerns
we often find it so difficult to voice. Straddling the boundaries of
design and architecture, matali crasset approaches the object
as a space. Mathieu Lehanneur, working from a more sculptural
perspective, raises the object to the heights of allegory (of the
couple), at the same time endowing it with a mediating role. Last
but not least, Florence Jaffrain tends to make the object an end
in itself, by creating a sofa that might almost be perceived as
playing the role of the lover, becoming an object of desire.
4. Acquario Civico di Milano
COURTESY OF KETOS 2.1
Viale Gadio, 2 - 20121 MILAN
11am to 10pm
metro access: M2 Lanza
Opening party
Wednesday April 14, 2010
6pm - midnight
DJ SET & PERFORMANCE
5. Aequorea
Born in Châlons-en-Champagne, France on 28 July 1965, matali
crasset was trained as an industrial designer. As exemplified by one
of her seminal objects, the “colonne d’hospitalité” entitled “Quand
Jim monte à Paris” (a space-saving guest bed complete with light
and alarm clock that rolls and zips up into a column for storage),
she invents her own methodology through which she questions
the status quo, the codes that govern our daily lives so as to better
free herself of them and experiment with new ideas. In this way,
she develops new typologies organized around principles such
as modularity, appropriation, flexibility and networking. Her work,
which came into its own in the 1990s, encapsulated in a refusal of
pure form, is conceived as research in action, built on hypotheses
rather than principles. matali moves in a range of eclectic realms,
from handcrafts to electronic music, from the textile industry to fair
trade. Her creations have thus led her along paths she might not
have initially imagined, from set design to furniture, from graphic to
interior design. matali spent her childhood in a small village in northern
France, on a farm where work and life were intimately connected.
8. By enclosing the couple within a curtain of ropes, “Aequorea” has the
same effect on adults, with elegance as an added bonus. It’s all about
intimacy, the need to be cut off from the rest of the world and redis-
cover the other face-to-face and alone. To reinforce this severed link
with everyday life, matali has placed an ultraviolet Wood’s lamp inside
the corolla. Colour perception is thus transformed and the lovers drift
into a dreamlike state, a new dimension. And to make matters even
more interesting, matali draws inspiration from the parallel worlds of
Barbarella, the comic book heroine imagined by Jean-Claude Forest,
paying tribute to this lyrical and sensual universe. It is a space serv-
ing as a reference: a quasi-aquatic, entirely fluid, space that softens
contours, an invitation to let go completely and get in touch with inner
feelings. This nod to the first liberated female comic book character
also carries a feminist message, not a protest but instead a paean to
the liberation of the body.
If matali’s design could be seen as taking another stand it would certainly
be a desire to break with routine and standardized behaviour. We need
to upend our daily rituals. “Aequorea”’s rounded surface is in direct
contrast to the trivial rectangle of the bed, and thus allows bodies to
move more freely. The contoured edge that defines the borders of the
platform creates a kind of circular pillow opening myriad possibilities
for lovers in all 360 degrees. Although matali challenges our habits, she
does not consider ritual as a bad thing in itself. On the contrary! Rituals
are essential to provide rhythm for our lives. It is the rote, humdrum,
here-we-go-again quality that snuffs out the spark kindled by our shared
moments. We need to learn how to renew our rituals so that they continue
to enrich our lives: In order to ensconce oneself within “Aequorea”, the
ropes need to be pulled gradually to the exterior of the corolla, and the
same operation must be performed in reverse in order to open it again.
In both cases, space is being modified, creating a ritual that marks the
beginning and the end of an intimate moment. In sum, Aequorea works
like an air lock that disconnects us from our everyday lives in order to
awaken the sensuality within. Far from accessorizing foreplay, matali’s
triumphant design gives it a new playing field.
Aequorea
10. Belly Love
Can furniture offer everyday utility while at the same time awakening the senses?
To answer this question, Florence Jaffrain joins playful design with a sharing
process, thus creating a platform bridging several disciplines based on the
theme of the encounter, with oneself as well as with others.
In this manner, she invests each of her creations with a joyful, modular
practicality that is in a constant state of becoming. Florence’s unstinting
generosity compels her to push back boundaries and her work, always
instilled with real humanity, becomes the focus of a perpetual quest for
meaning.
She explores the freedom of the body and the mind, thus crafting new
forms for our living spaces. Codes are redefined to open us to new bodily
postures, awakening our senses and causing us to rediscover the other
in new ways. Florence’s creations may also be distinguished by their pri-
mary function: “I revel in all forms of lived intensity, whether intellectual or
physical,” declares the artist, who says her purpose is to “create an object
that may be loved. I conceive objects that merge different disciplines and
concerns, but that are manufactured according to varying criteria. Today my
objects are more than mere creations – they constitute a philosophy in and
of themselves: playful, yes, but also ecological, sustainable, eco-recyclable,
locally produced, with a portion of profit donated to humanitarian causes.”
Florence is interested in our deep satisfaction and fulfilment in the present
moment, through an approach that respects beings and forms.
Florence lives and works in Paris, France
14. STRAF hotel
Via San Raffaele, 3 - 20121 MILAN
10am to 11pm
metro access: M1 M3 Duomo
Opening Party
Thursday April 15, 2010
6pm - 11pm
DJ SET
15. Confession
Designer, technician, artist, photographer, filmmaker, Levy’s skills are
multi-disciplinary and his work can be seen in prestigious galleries and
museums worldwide. Best known publicly for his furniture design for
global companies, installations and limited editions, Levy neverthe-
less feels that “the world is about people, not tables and chairs.” Born
in 1963 in Israel, Levy moved to Europe in 1988 and currently works
in Paris with his twenty-strong team of designers and graphic artists
forming Ldesign. Under the vision of Levy and his associate Pippo
Lionni, the firm also produces brand identities, packaging, signage,
exhibition, interior design and more. His formation was unconventional
with surfing and his graphic design studio took up much of his time
back home. However, following studies at the Art Center Europe in
Switzerland where he gained a distinction in Industrial Design in 1991,
Levy’s first international success was winning the Seiko Epson Inc.
competition, which jettisoned him into the public consciousness as
a “thinking” designer. After a stint in Japan where Levy consolidated
his ideas producing products and pieces for exhibitions, the designer
returned to Europe where he contributed his artistry to another field:
contemporary dance and opera by way of set design. The creation of his
firm then meant a foray back to his first love, Art and industrial design,
as well as other branches of his talents. Respected for his furniture and
light designs on all continents, Levy also creates hi-tech clothing lines
and accessories for firms in the Far East. Considering himself now more
of a “feeling” designer, Arik Levy continues to contribute substantially
to our interior and exterior milieu, his work including public sculpture
- his signature Rock pieces - as well as complete environments that
can be adapted for multi use. “Life is a system of signs and symbols,”
he says, “where nothing is quite as it seems.”
21. The Power of Love
Like no other, Mathieu Lehanneur is recognised for his modernist designs
that harmonize advanced technology and nature as features of his in-
numerable creations. By using ecological elements such as plants and
seaweed, Lehanneur has ingeniously fashioned a number of exploratory
design projects within the pharmaceutical, biological and astrophysical
industries. Amongst his list of achievements is the dB, a rolling ball that
monitors noise levels and automatically rolls to the source and emits white
noise to reduce sound disturbance. In recognition of his innovations,
Lehanneur was awarded the Carte Blanche by the VIA (Valorization of
Innovation in Furnishing) and the Grand Prix de la Création by the city of
Paris. Recently, he received the Talents du Luxe et de la Création award
and the Best Invention Award (USA) for « Andrea », a living air filter that
improves indoor air quality. His projects are part of several permanent
museum collections including those of MoMA New York, MoMA San
Francisco, FRAC and Musée des Arts Décoratif in Paris. Born in 1974
in Rochefort, France, Lehanneur graduated from ENSCI-Les Ateliers
(French National School for Industrial Design) in 2001, and established
his own studio to exclusively focus upon industrial design and interior
architecture. Impressed by science’s ability to investigate human biology,
Mathieu has since dedicated his life to explore interactions between the
body and the environment, living systems and the scientific world. In
2009, Lehanneur founded in USA « Everything But The Molecules », a
company specialising in design solutions for the pharmaceutical indus-
try. Between 2004 and 2008, Lehanneur was nominated post-graduate
manager of the Design and Research program at ESADSE / Cité du
Design Saint-Étienne.