Dialogues avec l’industrie (Dialogues with Industry)
par Noémie LesquinsExhibition at La Platine – Cité du design, Saint-Étienne 29 April – 16 August 2026 10–19 September 2026 at Galerie Même si, Paris
Curatorship Jean-François Dingjian — designer and lecturer at Ésad Saint-Étienne, and coordinator of the Local Tools post-master programme
Scenography Hugo Le Guen, with the participation of Nathan Cussol, Ismaël Rifaï, Camille Sardet
Exhibition production Cité du design
Graphic design Hugo Le Guen, with the participation of Nathan Cussol, Ismaël Rifaï, Camille Sardet
Photography Nathan Cussol
Technical production Nicolas Chatelain, Maël Hezzat, Clément Morel, Elisabeth Perrot, Olivier Philit, Jean Robin, David Simonin, Didier Vosgien, Vincent Savinel
Conceived as a project that is at once pedagogical, experimental and engaged, the exhibition Local Tools – Dialogues avec l’industrie retraces two years of close collaboration between emerging designers and partner companies, centred on a key question: how can tools, processes and production chains be rethought through design?
At a time when reindustrialisation is invoked as a desirable horizon, one fact becomes clear: there can be no contemporary industry without design, no transformation of production methods without a critical perspective. This conviction lies at the heart of the exhibition Local Tools – Dialogues avec l’industrie.
Throughout the collaboration between designers and manufacturers: the open workshop
The exhibition Local Tools – Dialogues avec l’industrie showcases the projects developed through the collaboration between four emerging designers and two industrial partners — Rondino and Sculpteo — as part of the Local Tools programme since 2024. It presents the outcome of these two years of experimentation through an installation combining observations, formal research, technical investigations and practical applications, alongside a publication conceived as a critical tool. It offers a space to document, question and extend the reflections initiated.
