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.
From the earliest times, human beings have developed activities around sustaining themselves with food, and developing the objects that make this possible. Ceramics and food have gone hand in hand through all human history, and this continues in our current world. Food and ceramics are the backbone of human history, and in our nomadic International Design Expedition we take up this long trail and spin it forward into the future through new ideas and new collaborations, new questions and random accidental discoveries. International Design Expeditions (IDE) is a platform that aims to forge unique international collaborations that will give rise to a new type of objects deeply rooted in the magic of the "terroir". IDE brings together a community of designers, artists, manufacturers, chefs, producers and artisans for a predetermined period to work together and exchange their knowledge and perspectives. The result is a collaborative collection of ceramic objects, foods and experimental recipes that share global and local influences. Each IDE expedition is based on intensive working sessions in artisans and manufacturers’ workshops where they exchange their knowledge over a period of several weeks. The transmission of know-how is a reciprocal process at the heart of these relationships; international perspectives and contemporary thinking are integrated in both dialogues and the manufacturing process. By collaborating with traditional manufacturers and exploring local culinary cultures, designers meet invaluable knowledge inherited from centuries of craftsmanship. The pieces are characterised by a new language specific to these in situ collaborations, heavily influenced by the unique local narratives of each "terroir" where they come to life. The result is a unique aura and energy that the objects express through their forms animated by textures and colours, showcasing the cultural qualities and distinct flavours of the place where they were designed and made.
This exhibition takes us on a veritable odyssey of design through Europe and the world. It is perfectly in tune with the new ethos of the Cité du design’s programming, which aims to offer themed exhibitions anchored in very contemporary experiences." For six months, visitors will therefore be able to see a collection of new creations in Saint-Étienne. Born of a series of surprising encounters between international designers and craftspeople from different cultures, they are the expression of new languages at the intersection of different forms of know-how."
