Curatorship and scenography Mathilde Bretillot, Pierangelo Caramia, Miska Miller-Lovegrove (IDE)
From 20 September 2024 to 16 March 2025, the International Design Expeditions (IDE)
platform will be making an extended stopover at the Cité du design in Saint-Étienne and
presenting the whole of Ceramic Food Route for the first time. Following in the footsteps
of the expeditions in Italy, Poland, France, Cambodia and Sweden, the LE DESIGN EN
VOYAGE, Ceramic & Food Route exhibition takes the visitor on a unique human and
creative adventure. It features 150 ceramic objects born of these encounters between
international designers, local culinary cultures and craft traditions.
Five years after the Ceramic & Food Route first took to the road,
International Design Expeditions is opening its travel diaries to the
public. The Cité du design presents a major exhibition featuring
almost 150 objects born of these encounters, workshops and
performances in five different countries, from Italy to Cambodia,
taking in Sweden, Poland and France. These cultural objects express
a new language as they combine culinary cultures, local know-how
and the practices of the international designers who embarked on
these expeditions.
I see design as a journey, not as a result. We reallybelieve in the word expedition, which implies having an
idea of the place where we are heading, but also being
ready to cope with the unexpected – and the understanding
that that is how the magic occurs.
The scenography is the work of IDE platform members and
exhibition curators Mathilde Bretillot, Pierangelo Caramia and
Miska Miller-Lovegrove. It is designed to operate as a journey
in itself. The centre piece is a 25-metre “Grande Table” with the
original pieces made during these expeditions. Five pavilions, one
for each country, are moored to this monumental table. They act as
a series of stops where the visitors are immersed in these different
countries.
This exhibition takes us on an odyssey of design. It isperfectly in tune with the new ethos of the Cité du design’s
programming, which aims to offer themed exhibitions
anchored in very contemporary experiences.
Each of the pavilions draws the visitor into something more
intimate, with a series of documented accounts. Fragments of
exploration, stories all coming together to describe the context and
throw more light on experimentations, thoughts and ideas. Each
pavilion is about new encounters and curiosity, about showing how
research takes place and is passed on.
International Design Expeditions organises expeditions during which
international designers collaborate with local enterprises to create
innovative solutions linked to environmental and societal issues. IDE’s
programmes also include events, courses and publications. By working in
an open-minded spirit and in an experimental way, International Design
Expeditions hopes to foster new forms of links between places, terroirs
and people to help forge a more sustainable world that respects the living
planet.
• 14 international designers • 11 IDE experts • 12 local ceramics studios • 8 international educational institutions
involved in the workshops: Design
department, Politecnico di Bari, Italy,
École Camondo Méditerranée, Toulon,
ESADSE Saint-Étienne, École Supérieure
d’Art et Design de Limoges, France,
School of Form, Warsaw, Poland, Sala Bai
Hotel & Restaurant School, Cambodia,
Paul Dubrule Hospitality & Tourism
School and Bayon Pastry School, Siem
Reap, Cambodia.
The scenography
• 600 sqm exhibition • 25-metre long « Grande Table » • 150 ceramic pieces • 5 pavilions (one for each country) • A film, D’une main, L’Autre by Gilles
Coudert (an a.p.r.e.s production/14
Septembre and Extrême Miaaam co-
production), showing in the workshop area
after the installations
