Paradise
March 4, 2006 | 12:00am
It’s freezing outside at -5 degrees C, with a winter-forest scene by Pierre-Yves Rochon to further drive home the point, but inside the Maison et Objet Paris Exhibition there are dreams of paradise: The poster girl is comfortable in her skin, holding in the palm of her hand her golden dream house, as a shower of Swarovski crystals adds even more sparkle to her reverie.
With the cold reality of a world that is both fragile and violent, subject to the dictatorship of uncertainty, this show has used its emergency powers to commit to a better world, a piece of paradise for everyone. Where else can this utopia be created but in the home – an imaginary place removed from the burden of constraints – where we can reinvent a new Garden of Eden.
Without claiming to be able to save the planet, the exhibition nevertheless observes that eco-awareness can rehabilitate optimism and give rise to new ideas of domestic bliss. The nostalgia for glorious and carefree days is reactivated, encouraging new inspirations and new ways of living. There is the desire to cast off and enjoy life. It is a hedonist home, but a responsible one. Each man creates his terrestrial paradise, his benevolent utopia.
For François Bernard, the notion of paradise is based on "Atlantis," one of the great founding myths of humanity – a sunken world of which we have supposedly lost all trace. It’s a superior world that we fantasize as having reached an advanced stage of evolution; an aquatic world that is the source or the origin in our collective imagination.
Atlantis is definitely a source of poetic inspiration for creators, architects and designers – the fluidity, organic nature and "liquid" element provide rich leitmotifs to use for enveloping the home in mythical bliss. With a futurist vision of shapes, their work seeks to reinstate creation in the field of innovation, questioning new materials and techniques that technology provides. There is also the expression of a new perspective based on the idea of "nature": protecting the environment, a globalizing approach to planetary issues, an emerging eco-consciousness.
During the last show, Mr. Bernard proposed "Futurustic," a reflection on earth and the solid. With "Atlantide" he invites us to enter a second stage that leads us to water, the liquid and the marine universe, encompassing the natural (fish, shells, sea colors) and the structural (fluidity, undulation, honeycombs).
Elizabeth Leriche finds paradise on the road, in mobile homes where eco-nomads can cast off, away from a lackluster world. With this concept, original ideas for living space emerge, while respecting nature: A mirrored cube, transportable by a mini fork-lift, is "a unit for dreaming that one can set down anywhere that one wishes."
A shipping container with living units like an entertainment system, a kitchen and bed, all with individual pop-up, self-contained storage boxes, are all ready to be transported to the next destination, together with the container home itself.
An inflatable igloo, perfect for meditation and uninterrupted sleep, comes to life whenever and wherever one pleases.
There is no waste in a chic Brazilian favela shack of recycled materials, easily disassembled and relocated to another place where the objets trouvé will dictate the new look and décor.
A tent with all the necessities folds up and fits into the trailer of an eco-friendly bicycle. You can still watch the Academy Awards with a bucket of popcorn from the all-aluminum Cara-Van with up-to-the-minute entertainment electronica and kitchen facilities.
Who knows? These modest, mobile and transitory homes, halfway between indoors and outdoors, between habitat and nature, may well become the way to live in the future.
The Nelly Rody Agency, on the other hand, thinks the paradisiacal home is overcome with "newstalgia": both popular and trendy, nostalgic and modern. This is not a regressive movement but a desire to project one’s roots into the future. It celebrates the return of the values of reassurance and humility with a recomposed past that conjures up the simple pleasures of the post-war era when the blue-collar world still believed in a brighter tomorrow.
Unbridled optimism, joyful and fun nostalgia take us into a chic-kitsch home. Designs from the ’50s are reinterpreted in modern materials but still give the feel of a simpler, stress-free life. It’s an endearing world where Fred does DIY gardening, while Doris does the housework and needlework. For Nelly Rody, "it’s a kind, otherworldly postcard of a little bit of paradise where the frying pan and the spanner replace the hammer and sickle."
With the cold reality of a world that is both fragile and violent, subject to the dictatorship of uncertainty, this show has used its emergency powers to commit to a better world, a piece of paradise for everyone. Where else can this utopia be created but in the home – an imaginary place removed from the burden of constraints – where we can reinvent a new Garden of Eden.
Without claiming to be able to save the planet, the exhibition nevertheless observes that eco-awareness can rehabilitate optimism and give rise to new ideas of domestic bliss. The nostalgia for glorious and carefree days is reactivated, encouraging new inspirations and new ways of living. There is the desire to cast off and enjoy life. It is a hedonist home, but a responsible one. Each man creates his terrestrial paradise, his benevolent utopia.
Atlantis is definitely a source of poetic inspiration for creators, architects and designers – the fluidity, organic nature and "liquid" element provide rich leitmotifs to use for enveloping the home in mythical bliss. With a futurist vision of shapes, their work seeks to reinstate creation in the field of innovation, questioning new materials and techniques that technology provides. There is also the expression of a new perspective based on the idea of "nature": protecting the environment, a globalizing approach to planetary issues, an emerging eco-consciousness.
During the last show, Mr. Bernard proposed "Futurustic," a reflection on earth and the solid. With "Atlantide" he invites us to enter a second stage that leads us to water, the liquid and the marine universe, encompassing the natural (fish, shells, sea colors) and the structural (fluidity, undulation, honeycombs).
A shipping container with living units like an entertainment system, a kitchen and bed, all with individual pop-up, self-contained storage boxes, are all ready to be transported to the next destination, together with the container home itself.
An inflatable igloo, perfect for meditation and uninterrupted sleep, comes to life whenever and wherever one pleases.
There is no waste in a chic Brazilian favela shack of recycled materials, easily disassembled and relocated to another place where the objets trouvé will dictate the new look and décor.
A tent with all the necessities folds up and fits into the trailer of an eco-friendly bicycle. You can still watch the Academy Awards with a bucket of popcorn from the all-aluminum Cara-Van with up-to-the-minute entertainment electronica and kitchen facilities.
Who knows? These modest, mobile and transitory homes, halfway between indoors and outdoors, between habitat and nature, may well become the way to live in the future.
Unbridled optimism, joyful and fun nostalgia take us into a chic-kitsch home. Designs from the ’50s are reinterpreted in modern materials but still give the feel of a simpler, stress-free life. It’s an endearing world where Fred does DIY gardening, while Doris does the housework and needlework. For Nelly Rody, "it’s a kind, otherworldly postcard of a little bit of paradise where the frying pan and the spanner replace the hammer and sickle."
BrandSpace Articles
<
>
