5 minute read
Paris Design Week
from 7 to 16 September 2023
With some 450 participants in 350 venues, the French capital is mobilising for this 13th edition to showcase design in in all its diversity offering nine itineraries to suit all tastes among art, know-how, the environment, gastronomy etc.
The inspiration theme of this Maison&Objet edition is ENJOY. It is an enchantment freed from the austerity to which society and brands have submitted to adapt their line of conduct to the crisis context. Maison&Objet will be "in search of pleasures" and is already showing colour, but also extravagance, audacity, and humor as added value of this new edition.
There is a kind of revival of the glam, the eroticism, the extravagance of the late 70s and 80s. The younger generations are adopting a very sexualised aesthetic. We also have all the night-life milieu that will influence and inspire today's design activities.
Seductive expressiveness
The most visible part of this quest for pleasures is driven by brands and creators who are not afraid to stand out: they desire to compose a diverse and creative identity, as with the Lensa AI application that allows one to put on a new costume and a new artificial identity in a few seconds. For this ‘home’, whose definition as a place of retreat and tranquility has been replaced by an ultra-expressive venue, light comes into play, the effects are glossy, metallic, and the shapes sensual.
Liberating creativity
Today, some people want to find moments of recklessness in adult life. Regressive references and recreational philosophy animate their daily life. Astonishment takes a central place. Radically optimistic, several artists, architects and designers have the right to daydream or to a “Great escape”. This quest for pleasures is expressed through staging with quirky humor and nourishes utopian imaginations and fantastical universes. Somewhere between diversion and proportional scale, daring aesthetics and regressive experiments, new perceptions of reality are brought out. The Nigerian Yinka Ilori also expresses his joyful radicalism and chromatic audacity in his London offices.
At present, the relationship with the mind is very important. The idea of looking for emotion and a positive dynamic is truly the foundation of this movement toward pleasures. We venture into more fun, more expressive, more colourful, more pop territory. We are close to the entire generation of Utopian designers of the 60s who invented a kind of retro futurism with a sort of almost naive aspect of the vision of the future that we would like to see.
Heightened sensitivity
When well-being is associated with a return to basics, pleasure is no longer exuberant but requires ultra- experiential exploration. Digital then becomes the gateway to new perceptions of oneself, to a more fun, uncomplicated, attractive and accessible well-being. The quest for peace combines augmented reality with sensory immersion when its material translation suggests new forms and sensations.
Designer(s) of the Year
Maison&Objet distinguishes the duo Fien Muller and Hannes Van Severen from the Muller Van Severen studio as ‘Designer(s) of the Year" 2023. The Belgian couple will be awarded the prestigious prize at the upcoming edition of the show. On this occasion, Muller Van Severen will offer an unprecedented 'cocoon exhibition', deploying an intimate and joyful panorama of more than a decade of creation.
Hospitality Lab and Cook&Share
The theme of this Maison&Objet edition, ENJOY, celebrates new trends with enthusiasm and optimism. This quest for pleasure and well-being is reflected in the sectors designed for professionals in the hotel and catering industry.
The place for Gourmet Intercation
To continue with the topic of hospitality, Maison&Objet offers two highlights by Gault&Millau and Waww La Table to be discovered in the Cook&Share, Hall 3, the tableware and kitchenware sector.
Feel Good Allert!
Maison&Objet presents the new section for this September edition: WELL-BEING&BEAUTY, defined as "the space where we feel good in out skin," which is part of a strong trend and resonates with the Maison&Objet theme of the year, ENJOY. In Hall 5A the Maison&Objet ecosystem will bring together brands and exhibitors with the same values: to contribute on improving the well-being at home and with yourself - inside and out. The originality of the Well-Being&Beauty section lies in its multiple dimensions: body, mind, and spirit. Alongside cosmetics and skincare there will be reunited fitness accessories, 'soft' techniques such as light therapy, music therapy and aromatherapy, detox and relaxation ingredients, clean home care products, as well as home fragrances. You will find brands like Equilibre and their products based on cannabidiol (CBD), extracted from hemp, reputed to promote sleep, stimulate energy, boost libido, and reduce stress. Not to mention the ranges of elegant sex-toys, or Holi Lab., a brand created a year ago around lithotherapy, the science of stones, and their healing vibrations.
A panorama of the Young French Design scene
After editions highlighting Lebanon, the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, and recently Spain, thus drawing a map of emerging designs worldwide, the Rising Talent Awards are returning to France. The jury, chaired by designer Philippe Starck, has selected seven talents to be showcased at the next edition of Maison&Objet. Inscribed in a double filiation with the history of the decorative arts and the ’industrial arts’, Made-in-France-Design makes its young talents shine well beyond the country's borders; and with it, an exceptional know-how to which is added a creativity imbued with freedom and a certain taste for storytelling. While consumers' desires and designers' practices seem to be converging on a large scale to meet universalized needs, the particularities of the French ecosystem remain or are being strengthened thanks to the energy of a new generation of designers determined to put tradition at the service of progress.
