Design en main.

On 10 June 2026, the Galerie Nationale du Design in Saint-Étienne will open its doors with an original and ambitious inaugural exhibition. Curated by design historian Laurence Mauderli, Design en main. Du langage à l’objet (Design in Hand. From Language to Object) is a game of mirrors where words illuminate forms, where gestures reveal uses, and where the hand – simultaneously a word, tool, symbol and memory –becomes the key to a story that connects individuals, thingsand the world.

This exhibition brings together nearly four hundred pieces from various public collections, making it a true design feat. From Saint-Étienne’s industrial history to contemporary perspectives, this visual journey through the major changes of the 20th and 21st centuries highlights how things passed from hand to hand carry the memories of past societies while also opening up new paths. Through the legacies, diversions, ruptures and reinventions, we (re)discover constantly evolving design, calling into question our relationship to the world and sketching out the forms of the future. 

The exhibition Design en main. Du langage à l’objet runs until 7 March 2027 and is emblematic of the new Galerie Nationale du Design. The Galerie is one of a kind in France and each year a guest curator will draw on the wide selection of design pieces from public collections and present a new take on this multifaceted discipline. 

It is housed in a unique space at the heart of the Cité du design quarter, converted from an old arms factory. The site is full of history and symbolism, which inspired the title of the exhibition.

 This first exhibition acts as an inaugural gesture, made with a sign of the hand. It is the hand that makes, that passes on, that connects – and that invites the public to cross the threshold in the Galerie Nationale du Design.