Places to be brings together 14 international designers around a common project: jointly reconstituting a unique living space, made up of 11 rooms each conceived by a designer. This mission is shrouded in mystery, like the famous Cluedo game. As initial information, the invited designers were only given the dimension of their respective spaces. Without knowing anything about the neighboring spaces, they developed their own aesthetic universe and imagined an entirely practicable environment, from furniture to objects, that visitors can use. The exhibition intends to reposition design as an everyday environment with utilitarian value and no longer as a category of museum artworks. Places to be values design as a discipline, at the crossroads of art and industry, intended to conceive and manufacture utilitarian objects, spaces or images. Imagined by Nathalie Viot, director of the Fondation d’entreprise Martell, developed by Laurent Geoffroy, engineer at Chalvignac and created by the teams of this Charente based company, the scenography of Places to be is made up of gigantic circular stainless steel tanks, varying from 2.50 to 3.50 meters high and from 16 to 66 sqm, welded together and connected by passages cut out of the walls.

Dancefloor — Chasing the Light

The dance floor Chasing the light by Wendy Andreu. The last tank mobilizes all the dance floor codes, adapted to the domestic scale. Night light is provided by neon lights with floating curves. They light up a mirror ball, in the center, which sends its reflections on the stainless steel where the name of the space, Chasing the light, is also the title of the song by the Canadian musician Marie Davidson, the song starts when you pass. In the room, a bar faces a rest area and a cloakroom (consisting of a mirror and coat racks). In the middle, there is free space to let people dance. Tapestries enhance the intimacy of the place, evoking the links of a chain or curls of smoke.

Pictures: Vanni Bassetti & CK Mariot