Présent >< Futur

As part of its mission to support and disseminate design, the Cité du design is launching a cycle of monographic exhibitions featuring the young French and European scene, entitled Présent >< Futur. It will be opening during France Design Week 2023 with vrai ou FAUVE, a flamboyantly colourful exhibition by designer Laureline Galliot,
who transposes the gestural aspect of the work of artisan artists into a digital language, even painting in 3D.

A gallery dedicated to the latest design in Saint-Étienne

To show the breadth, singularity and variety of contemporary design practices: that is the aim of this cycle of exhibitions entitled Présent >< Futur, which invites confirmed designers to present their work at the Cité du design. A flagship place dedicated to the dissemination of design, but also a venue where all those involved in design can come together, this Saint-Étienne institution has created a gallery dedicated to the latest in French and European design in its emblematic La Platine building. By offering them 200 m² of space for their first personal exhibition, it is actively supporting these designers. Each designer is invited to put together their own exhibition and to decide the layout of their work or their research in the space to express a message, a coherence, a commitment. The Cité du design will be putting on three exhibitions a year as part of this cycle, and each one will be the subject of a small catalogue. Parisian gallery A1043 is the patron of the first two exhibitions in the Présent >< Futur cycle.

Design, creator of cultural and economic value

Because design exists at the intersection of two worlds, culture and business, the Présent >< Futur cycle also provides each guest designer with an opportunity to engage in a dialogue with an SME in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, in order to highlight their industrial know-how through an experimentation conducted in situ. This shared creative adventure is an extension of the FABécole, an experiment that has been organised for three years by the Cité du design and ESADSE, the Saint-Étienne Higher School of Art and Design. For the first exhibition in this cycle, Laureline Galliot has collaborated with Maison Benaud, a Lyon-based designer and manufacturer of fabrics and moiré fabrics in particular, known for its work with the biggest names in decoration, fashion and haute couture.

A collection of exhibition guides

To leave a lasting mark, as well as to disseminate the designer's work, each exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue of about 60 pages, designed to be part of a collection. Each one will contain a text commissioned from an author, a large selection of visuals with accompanying commentaries and a focus on the partner company and its industrial know-how.

A cycle that gives pride of place to graphics

The Cité du design has entrusted the Chevalvert studio with the creation of a specific visual identity for the Présent >< Futur cycle and the definition of a graphic charter for this exhibition guide. This visual design studio founded in 2007 by Patrick Paleta and Stéphane Buellet has created a graphic system that arouses the curiosity and a desire to discover the creations and approaches of the designers presented in this new exhibition format. The visual identity translates the profusion, the variety and the creativity that characterise the Présent >< Futur cycle in a colourful system that also evokes the way that design adapts to issues in society and transforms to meet the needs of a world that is constantly changing. The publication is intended to be bang up to date, and great attention is paid to the quality of the printing, the technical know-how and the quality in terms of legibility and visibility.

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

From February to May 2024
Exhibition by designer Guillaume Bloget, whose work seeks to establish frugal relations between material, technique and usage. Since 2016, he has been known for his exploration of the history and manufacturing of everyday objects with the Typologie collective.

From June to September 2024
Exhibition by the duo dach&zephir formed in 2016 by two graduates of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, Florian Dach and Dimitri Zephir. They are working with craftspeople, factories and industrial manufacturers on creating a collection of objects celebrating a culturally diverse art of living.

From October to December 2024
Exhibition by David Dubois, independent designer, visual artist and scenographer. After graduating from the ENSCI-Les Ateliers in 2003, he collaborated with the Bless collective, then Martin Szekely, and he now develops objects or additions to objects that often fill gaps no-one has thought to fill before.

About Galerie A1043, patron
Founded in Paris in 2016 by artist Didier Jean Anicet Courbot and landscaper Stéphanie Courbot, Galerie A1043 focuses on monographic and thematic projects and commissions work from contemporary designers. It places great emphasis on the quality of the design and production of the objects without taking account of the period, instead opting to select objects with conceptual and/or sculptural qualities.

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