JEAN NOUVEL FURNITUREGagosian Gallery & Galerie Patrick Seguin
Paris, Mar. 30 - May 21, 2011
«The key word of my work is elementariness. I look primarily for the essence of things; I would like to invent archetypes.»
-- Jean Nouvel
Gagosian Gallery Paris is pleased to announce an exhibition of limited edition furniture by Jean Nouvel, presented in collaboration with Galerie Patrick Seguin.
Like many of his modernist predecessors who worked across related disciplines, Nouvel describes himself as an architect who also makes design. His non-architectural products derive from his architectural commissions or from alternative visions that correspond to his building design but which are linked to specific use. Regardless of the scale of the object or the architecture, Nouvel employs the same rigorous approach, imbuing the objects and accoutrements of everyday life with a lyricism that is striking and emotive yet austere and utilitarian.
La Table au Km (2008-2011) is a narrow (75cm) wooden table, made to measure, with a minimum length of 4m. (The example exhibited here measures 6m 35, according to the dimensions of the gallery). The extraordinary proportions of the table are determined by a constructive principle whereby its span is miraculously supported within the thickness of the material itself, which is a lamination of oak and hornbeam. Thus in theory the length
of the table is limitless.
Boîte à outils (1987-2011) is a storage system based on the staple toolbox that can be found in every household. Nouvel has studied and reinterpreted this utilitarian container, streamlining it while imbuing it with additional functions and attributes.
In 1995 Nouvel created the Jean Nouvel Design Agency (JND), to develop design and interior architecture projects in parallel with the architectural practice Ateliers Jean Nouvel. Several series of furniture and industrial objects have been developed and commercialized from the famous Less collection with Unifor, coffee services for Alessi, light fittings for Troll, partitioning systems for Methis, sits for Roset, and tables and lamps
for Pallucco.