(EN) Gallery Slott @ Salone del Mobile presents Exhibition ''Préliminaires''

GALLERY
Paris,France

presents

SALONE DEL MOBILE Milano
14-19 April 2010

www.exquisedesign.com

Acquario Civico di Milano

STRAF hotel

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
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.

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

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.

Aequorea
Limited Edition

Dimensions: H 250 x Diam 190 cm
Materials: Metal structure, plastic, foam cushion with
coated fabric, ultraviolet Wood’s lamp
Consisting of a platform topped by a corolla, an umbrella-shaped
structure, “Aequorea” was inspired by the majesty of the jellyfish,
with the title of the work taken from its species name. Jellyfish and
spineless are often mentioned in the same breath and it is true that
the creature’s structure is very fluid. If we take away the water, we
are left with just a gelatinous skin. Emulating the grace of this ma-
rine animal, matali crasset uses her materials parsimoniously and
concentrates her work on the empty space, the site of the lovers’
encounter. “Aequorea” is more space than object.

Contemporary architecture has decompartmentalized the home
to allow more malleable pathways better adapted to the need for
speed, but also respite, in modern life. And yet, for the same rea-
son, we have lost many of our private places. matali embraces the
challenge of recreating an environment conducive to intimacy while
conceiving a structure that is modular enough to reap the benefits of
openness in architectural spaces. “Aequorea“ is therefore situated
midway between design and architecture, on an intermediate plane.
Her work necessarily brings to mind the improvised cubbyholes
we built in our bedrooms, using sheets, chairs and any number
of other objects, when we were children. We recall the excitement
we felt when we snuggled into this space, away from the world of
adults and their rules. We could exchange secrets, invent our own
little games and – since, after all, the subject here is preliminaries,
or foreplay – sometimes play doctor as well.

Aequorea
photos © Florian Kleinefenn

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

Aequorea
photos © FLORIAN KLEINEFENN

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

Belly Love
Prototype

Materials: Soft foam, photoluminescent sensory fabric
Dimensions : H 90 x W 170 x D 170 cm

In its shape, “Belly Love” is directly inspired by Sarcophyton elegans,
a soft coral found in the Indian Ocean. Transiting from the tropical reef
to the Parisian living room, it retains its elegance and increases its
comfort quotient, becoming both paradise of the senses and vessel
for the body.

Thanks to a new textile material especially created by ENSAIT in Roubaix
using photoluminescent components and microcapsules incorporated
in the fibre, “Belly Love” recreates the magical luminosity of the ocean
bottom, while diffusing the pleasant fragrance of essential oils. The
sarcophyton’s tentacles become soft bristles inviting caresses and when
we rest our head on the piece, the beating of its heart gives an idyllic
cadence to this waking dream. “Belly Love” breathes as well, and we
do well to wonder if it is a mechanism hidden under the memory foam
or a genuine life force that animates this membrane. Coral or sofa, syn-
thetic or organic, this question does not come to mind when we behold
the object: through the perfection of its technical aspects, Florence is
able to make us entirely chase away such concerns. Magic takes over,
transporting us into the realm of poetry.

Incidentally, Florence tell us that when she created the mould in collabo-
ration with Géraldine Blin, the shape of the heart appeared of its own
accord on the underside of the piece… “Belly Love” was born!

It is a belly because it takes us back to the sensorial ideal of our life in
the womb and also because it breathes with the ease and tranquillity of
a protective masculine figure.

Belly Love
photos © florence jaffrain/tnut

Belly Love

“Belly Love” therefore combines male and female principles, retaining
the best of both. It evokes to some extent Plato’s mythical ideal of the
Androgyne. “Belly Love” cultivates the paradox of being both asexual and
sensual. Its shape envelops you, so that you may give way to the protection
of its breast. You don’t lie down on this sofa, you coil up on it. You attune
your breathing to its own respiration until you and the object are one.

All that remains is the suggestion of a breath ebbing and ﬂowing like a wave,
irresolute on the coral reefs. “Belly Love” has the aspect of an erogenous
mucous membrane, soft and sensual, that carries us along with it in an
inebriation of the senses. Ultimately, this sensorial sofa is not a concept
accessible to reason. It needs to be conceived instead as a sensation of
total well-being, abandon, letting go, a harmony that stimulates every ﬁbre
of our being, awakening desire and imagination.

“Belly Love” by Florence Jaffrain is to contemporary design what
Pygmalion’s Galatea is to mythological sculpture: the sensorial sofa was
only intended to awaken desire, but it has assumed a life of its own to
become itself an object of desire.

Belly Love

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

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.”

Confession
Limited Edition 8 ex.
+ 2 artist’s proofs
+ 2 prototypes

Confessional in two parts, left and right

Materials: black enamelled MDF, matte chestnut ﬁnish,
feather cushion, felt cloth
Dimensions: H 210 x W 86 x D 87 cm

This object in two parts, a kind of modern home confessional, is without
a doubt the central piece among these installations. By borrowing one
of the Catholic Church’s best communications tools, Arik Levy in no
way aims to commit blasphemy. All religions were created to cement
social relationships. “Confession” is neither religious nor anti-religious.
It must be considered simply as a social object. Arik encourages us
to play with social codes, delivering an entirely revisited confessional
adapted to the modern home. He reworks the proportions to create an
object with a seating area larger than the traditional version. Derision,
a feeling of being protected, humility – the effect of the piece changes
depending on the circumstances. In addition, this confessional is
perfectly modular, offering inﬁnite possibilities for interaction by playing
with the orientation and distance between the two parts.

Confessions Installations
photos © arik levy

Confession

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.

The Power of Love
In collaboration with François Brument, flux designer

Limited Edition 8 ex.
+ 2 artist’s proofs
+ 2 prototypes

Materials : Stereolithography, metallization,
electronic circuit board, headphones
Dimensions : H 59 cm x W 38 cm x D 40 cm (fire)

“The Power of Love” consists of two separate sets of headphones con-
nected to a fire, thus three elements symbolizing two lovers joined by their
love. The object conveys formidable sculptural power… but it remains an
object. Its representative value serves its purpose. “The Power of Love”
is a type of lovemaking accessory, a foreplay toy.

Each of the lovers puts on a set of headphones. In itself this is a token
of eroticism for Mathieu Lehanneur’s generation, all of whom fondly
remember the cult scene in the film La Boum, where a young man
seduces Sophie Marceau by having her listen to a sentimental ballad on his
Walkman while everyone else is dancing to a powerful up-tempo rock
song. The same principle is used in “The Power of Love”: each of the
listeners hears the tracks recorded as representing his or her intimate
universe. Hence the lovers are not in sync and this is very important, as
desire is born of difference. It is the glistening fire that continually as-
serts its presence, imposes its heat and creates the union. The lovers
see in it the perfection of their original love that they seek to rediscover
and stoke.

Power of Love

When two individuals fall in love, they create a new universe together
without at the same time losing touch of their own, a sleight of hand
whereby 1+1=3. Love’s power is rooted in a crossing of boundaries, the
creation of a new entity. Mathieu represents it as a flame shooting up at the
meeting point of two sound tracks that continue to exist separately. This
flame calls to mind the burning bush in the Bible, God revealing himself
to Moses. If this burning bush is a theophany, an appearance of God to
man, what Mathieu offers us may perhaps be termed an “erotophany”:
this fire represents the emergence of love between the lovers.

We are all fascinated by the very moment of the big bang creating the
lovers’ universe: it is a moment of extreme intensity in which the potency
of love is compressed before it explodes. At this embryonic stage, much
still lies ahead in order to convert this purely abstract entity into con-
crete form. Still amorphous at this point, love is merely an eager force.
Consequently, the challenge faced by the artist was to fix an element as
unstable as fire to create an object that would allow this elusive power
to be captured. However, from an aesthetic viewpoint, this piece does
not bear the mark of the designer. He designed neither the headphones
nor the flame; in fact, he merely chose them. The flame is generated by a
computer using an algorithm creating special effects, then laser finished
by a robotic machine. As for the headphones, they are the standard type
available in stores. The importance of choice in the creative process –
more precisely, the aptitude for eliminating the unnecessary – is certainly
appreciated, but choosing among the products of our mind is not the
same thing as selecting elements of reality. In this sense, “The Power of
Love” is a work closer to photography than design. The designer aims
to give the object the possibility for self-expression.

Power of Love
photos © mathieu lehanneur & françois brument, flux designer

“The Power of Love” is a captured, immortalized flame, a kind of three- In collaboration
dimensional snapshot. This is certainly not the first time that love has with François Brument, flux designer
been represented through the use of flames. But that doesn’t make it any
less relevant! Mathieu does not thrust upon us his own personal opinions. In 2004 François graduates from ENSCI/
Instead, he chooses an accessible language and his art is entirely evident Les Ateliers with a project named « In-
in the care with which he employs this language. Formation, digital paradigm ». Since then
he continues his research on the poten-
The image of inflamed love is associated with a stroke of lightning or a tial of digital creation in the design field :
thunderbolt in French and Italian. Can we understand the revelation of moving between multimédia and industrial
love? It is a fire without perceptible spark, its origin remains a mystery. productions, François substitutes computer
Science has developed many theories on the birth of love by way of programing with drawing and develops
chemistry. The flame of the burning bush also has no visible origin. Per- a kind of design in perpetual mutation.
haps science understands this phenomenon but no one would want to The technological implication of his work
believe in anything but the magic of the moment. has enabled him to collaborate with the
EDF research and development depart-
Critics will certainly continue to debate whether a design object may be ment. François also transmits his original
considered a work of art, but what Mathieu has been able to achieve here approach to the students of the Ecole
is a work of art with our own lives. He invents an intimate and profoundly Supérieure d’Art et de Design of Saint-
poetic moment like no other. Etienne where he teaches conception
practice and digital making. Since 2005
his work has been exhibited in France and
internationally and won him an acquisition
by the Fonds National d’Art Contemporains
in 2008 and 2009. For the Préliminaires
exhibition Mathieu Lehanneur called upon
François to model the petrified flame of
“ The Power of Love “.

Power of Love

Power of Love

THE GALLERY WIDE OPEN TO THE WORLD OF CREATION

Slott is a perpetual work in progress. Strategically located between two
trans-European railway stations at the heart of Paris, gallery Slott* is the culmination
of years of efforts by its Franco-Swedish founder Paola Bjaringer, who has
sought out talents all over the world. These experiences sparked the desire to
create a cross-disciplinary, decompartmentalized place, conceived as both a
residency and exhibition space for artists. Gallery Slott opened to the public
in December 2009 with Preliminaries, an exhibition bringing together works
by the designers matali crasset, Arik Levy, Mathieu Lehanneur and Florence
Jaffrain. In April 2010 during Milan Mobile, Gallery Slott unveils four unique pieces :
Confession, The Power of Love, Aequorea and Belly Love. The women designers
will be located at the Acquario Civico di Milano, and the men at Hotel Straf. © exquisedesign/marc-antoine bulot

* an original creation by architect Joseph Caspari, in collaboration with Marc Möhlmann and Donatien de Villanova, interior
architects. This place like no other, located at 12 rue du Château Landon 75010 Paris, comprises a gallery, an apartment
and an atelier on the courtyard side as well as a window facing the street.
.
CONTACT
Gallery SLOTT
c/o Exquise Design
12, rue du Château Landon
75010 Paris, France
Tel: +33 (0) 140 360 718

Press
Michela Pelizzari
press@p-s.it
tel+ 39 328 884 0777
Federica Sala
sala.federica@gmail.com
tel: +39 348 530 4588

Gallerist
Paola Bjaringer
paola@exquisedesign.com
tel: +33 (0) 670 524 384

(EN) Gallery Slott @ Salone del Mobile presents Exhibition ''Préliminaires''

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(EN) Gallery Slott @ Salone del Mobile presents Exhibition ''Préliminaires''