Once again, Villa Noailles will be hosting the famed festival Design Parade, an international competition celebrating emerging talent and creative innovation in design and architecture. Serving as platform for discovering a new crop of designers, the festival is punctuated by two competitions: design and interior architecture, each with its own jury and president. This year, the former is presided by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance, a familiar name at Invisible Collection, as he is on our roster of star designers. Besides leading a prestigious jury tasked with singling out the most promising name among those who made it to the final stage of the competition, Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance was invited to stage an exhibition. On view, his latest pieces from the “Made In Situ” series, a more personal body of work rooted in and inspired by the natural materials found on a specific site.
“Made In Situ is a holistic approach, a way of developing projects that enhance craftsmanship through thinking outside the box, a versatile journey that goes through the hand of man without freeing itself from the contribution of useful technology“, says Noé, who, just a couple of months ago, graced us with a fantastic exhibition at our flagship in New York City. This is the first time that the multidisciplinary, award-winning designer will show these pieces outside of Portugal, where he has a studio. “Made In Situ, manifesto of a journey” finds its origin in the very definition of the Latin locution In Situ, a direct reference to design as a means of reconnecting with what exists around us. The associated drawings, texts, photographs and films play an important role in understanding the creative process; these artifacts become the recorded memory of the experiences generated by the project. Going beyond the object itself, this journey testifies to a holistic and mindful approach, which is reflected in the immersive scenography designed for Villa Noailles. Echoing the essence of the collections, the space is filled with noble and timeless materials, sounds, scents and images.
They embody markers of local specificities and testify to a commitment to sustainability, through a second life offered once the exhibition is over. The collections and works can be discovered, in situ, like authentic travel diaries, each one with its own distinctive features. Titled ‘Chêne & Liège’, the installation focuses on cork oak trees that grow in the French Massif des Maures, displaying original designs in raw, sinuous wood and its distinctive cork bark. This symbiotic work serves to (re)enhance the natural, economic, and human ecosystem of the Var region. “I wanted to be in direct contact with materials, their origins, and the people who transform it, in order to give tangible meaning to my projects”, says Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance. Everything is examined through the prism of his eye so that each discovery can become the starting point for new collections of contextualized objects, underlining the importance of ‘making’ in harmony with the territory. Discover more about the unique creations of Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance.
Credit pictures: Joann Pai – Sanda Vuckovic – Say Who/Jean Picon – Clement Chevelt
